The Potter Games
by superxprettyxkitty
Summary: My first crossover fiction of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. When twenty four names are selected from the reaping ball all must compete in the arena for survival of the fittest. Who will win this years games? (All characters ages have mixed into one school set from Marauders' to Golden Trio era's) Merlin's Beard if you are chosen... May the odds be EVER in your favour...
1. Opening Chapter

Hi guys this is an entirely new spin on fanfics I normally write, the idea hit my suddenly and for no reason at all. Why not put the Harry Potter characters in the Hunger Games arena with no magic and see who could really fight to the finish? Yes I have changed some things up a bit so it fits.

Of course there are warnings, what would one of my stories be without them?

If you've read The Hunger Games then yes you will understand what this entails.

Reviews? They inspire me, I'm so nervous!

Enjoy!

…

Early morning and the sun rose over the grounds of the Hogwarts castle. If today hadn't been planned as possibly the worst and most fearful day of a young Wizard or Witches life then it would actually be classed as a rather beautiful morning. It was late May, the crisp, coolness of the fresh spring air still hung but the bright, flickering of the summer sunshine was tempting its way across the country. Whether the weather would hold was an entirely different story.

Today was no ordinary day, today marked the annual reaping for a battle of wits, physical and emotional strength and inner abilities. There would be no magic involved and that was the hardest part of most of the students, nobody had a fair chance but at the same time nobody really had much of an advantage over the other.

As the morning progressed, the castle was not filled with its usual happy buzz. At breakfast the Great Hall filled with hundreds of students and teachers was deadly silent, as silent as it ever was on this day.

Each and every year marked the beginning of another year's Hunger Games, the Muggles did something similar with what they called a 'television set' where they would televise people brutally battling it out to be crowned victor above all else, to gain certain fame and glory and gifted with a lifetime supply or food, water, money, clothing, a beautiful new home and fame. Who wouldn't want that?

As Regulus Black's eyes wandered around the Great Hall over his sickly breakfast of eggs on toast he couldn't help but wonder who the hell would want something like that? But then again if it was your name that was chosen you would be the one to want it. Your name was entered once to begin with from age twelve until the age of eighteen, this included the first years that were unfortunate enough to have birthdays in term-time (the start of September to the end of May) and those born outside of May the 27th would not be entered if they were still only eleven years old.

Unfortunately for Regulus he was fourteen years old and that meant his name would be entered three times, his brother, Sirius, would be entered four along with those annoying friends of his in their little gang that called themselves 'The Marauders'. A small amount of pity crossed Regulus' chest as he gazed over at them, poor Lupin, every year they allowed a person to take something called a Tesserae, this was not necessarily so much for the student themselves but also for their family and only the poorest of students would do it mainly out of desperation than anything else. The Tesserae would offer their family food, a small amount of money, the child's school books and robes and other such supplies they would need paid for each year they entered, the Ministry would supply them but it meant their name would be added to the reaping ball for the amount of people supplied for in their family. Regulus had heard Lupin express he was doing it for the sake of his father, a Wizard working for the Ministry and bitterly unhappy with Remus taking it but he had very little choice with a Muggle for a mother, she could not work as well and work was hard in the Muggle world to begin with so supporting them and a sickly son was a massively difficult task in itself.

"Black, how many entries do you have?" Snape's cool voice echoed through the boy's head and Regulus looked around at him slowly and blinked.

"Only three" Regulus said quietly. "You?" he asked searching Severus' face.

"Twelve" Severus said awkwardly and Regulus looked mildly surprised.

"You get the Tesserae?" he asked almost stupidly.

"My father is dead, Black" Severus' face was placid and Regulus felt suddenly uncomfortable.

"Sorry, I've got a lot on my plate is all…." Regulus mumbled with the softest of sighs.

"Don't we all" Snape's eyebrows rose sarcastically and before Regulus could open his mouth to say something else (and most likely put his foot in it) Snape had turned away and Regulus could hear him asking Evan Rosier (whom only had his name entered four times) about how he felt his odds were this year.

Considering most of the people in the school would be entered, Regulus felt like most people, even the seventh years without Tesserae would be going with odds most definitely in their favour.

Regulus swallowed his tea bitterly before they all headed back to the common room to prepare themselves and await further instructions.

Someone from the Ministry would come later, they would sit in rows in their house groups wearing their badges with pride and waiting. From each section of the country the names of a boy and a girl would be drawn from the reaping ball and they would be assigned somewhere to represent, whether it was their home county or not was an entirely different story, apparently the Ministry did not care for this.

"_MY_ father slipped some gold to the Minister to make sure my name wasn't pulled from that ball this year" Mulciber said proudly. "I wouldn't be seen running around with Muggle weapons like a savage, publicised for the whole world to see on those World Cup screens" he sniffed arrogantly.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Evan said bitterly wrinkling his nose.

"Because you don't think of anything unless someone else does it for you" Avery replied.

Evan ripped his wand from his pocket. "Are you fucking starting, mate?"

Avery was on his feet in an instant and the other's jumped up a row instantly breaking out. Regulus couldn't make much sense of their rambling voices and the pointing of fingers but this wasn't an uncommon occurrence on reaping day, no people would often get very nervous, stressed or het up about what was about to happen and fights breaking out even in the corridors was very common. Nobody got punished unless it was terribly severe because the teachers themselves could understand.

Regulus got to his feet. "GUYS!" he tried to keep his voice as level as possible.

They turned and stared in somewhat of a surprise, Regulus was not normally like this but then again today was the reaping day.

"Don't you see? Names in it or not one of us could be called today and one of us- if not more- could be leaving forever, we might not all get to hang out like this again so why don't we just calm down and hang out" he said exasperated his eyebrows creasing into a furrow.

Despite the cool, hard demeanour of most Slytherin's, they all went soft for Regulus' little face.

There was a pause.

"He's right" Evan finally spoke.

"We can't keep fighting" Draco Malfoy spoke calmly, he was only in second year, and about to turn thirteen but the way his birthday added up he had only been entered one time. "Besides, my mother has promised me that no matter what happens she won't allow me to go into that arena, she won't!"

There was an exchange of murmurs of agreement.

Regulus looked down, even passing gold to the Minister himself, doing favours, donating to charities, putting in words meant very little it just slightly decreased your odds and odds were all about chance especially with the way those two reaping balls worked.

The rest of the morning passed unbearably slowly, Regulus went upstairs into his dormitory to bathe and change into his school robes. It was Sunday so nobody had been wearing them and those whom were chosen would be taken to the Ministry tonight to begin their first stages of training. No magic would be involved so it would be a nightmare.

….

The whole school was deathly silent as everybody made their way following in immaculate lines behind their heads of house into the Great Hall. The benches had been moved into rows where people could sit in groups with spaces down the middle, the edges and through the splits, each house would have its own corner and Regulus would be sitting at the front left from where you walk in through the double doors right near the stage.

They filed in and took their seats, he swallowed nervously and fidgeted his hands in his lap. He didn't even need to look at his friends to feel their tension. A small girl with a face like a pug sitting with Malfoy behind him let out a firm sigh and shook out her hair rather irritatingly.

When the whole school was seated they waited in absolute silence, you could hear a pin drop.

Finally, Professor Dumbledore took the stage moving to the beautiful, elegant podium he waited.

"Another year has gone and for twenty three of you we will be parting our ways for good this afternoon, for many, many hundreds of you, you will walk away safe for another year and for a partial amount you will walk away safe for the rest of your lives" his eyes wandered around the Great Hall. "But for one of you, eternal fame and glory await whoever wins this years' Hunger Games…."

There was a small excitable whisper before Dumbledore waved his hands to silence everyone again.

"I have with me today, Professor McGonagall whom will be bearing official witness to the reaping and a Mr Lorcan McLaird" Dumbledore said turning and watching as a surprisingly young man stepped forward onto the stage wearing robes of a deep blue and the badge of Ravenclaw emblazoned on them (obviously his former school house)

There was a tiny applause, not out of disrespect as much as out of sheer fright.

"Yes, thank you headmaster and what an honour it is for me to be here today" he spoke turning to the crowd and taking Dumbledore's place at the podium. "I wish you all the best of luck and may the odds be _ever_ in your favour" he shot them a knowing wink before turning around and watching as two older witches pushed the reaping balls closer to the centre of the stage.

"And now" the man began. "It is time for the annual reaping, as tradition states, ladies first" he nodded before making his way over to the ball.

The entire hall watched with baited breath as the man reached into the ball his fingers wandering for a moment before he snatched up an evenly folded piece of parchment and pulled it out.

"The first young woman competing in this annual Hunger Games is…. Miss Lily Evans of Gryffindor" he burst into applause.

There was a faint applause as slowly the red-headed girl got to her feet, her face was as white as snow as she made her way shakily up onto the stage.

Regulus glanced across the Gryffindor where some of her female friends were holding one another, James Potter's jaw was on the floor, Lupin and Pettigrew looked to him sympathetically as Sirius put his arms around the shocked, whitened boy. Regulus glanced briefly to Severus whom had looked down, that look of horror crashing over his face.

"And now" the man said reaching into the ball again, this time pulling two names. "From Ravenclaw, Miss Cho Chang!" he called, there was another tiny applause as a pretty girl of Asian descent made her way up onto the stage patting her robes down flat as she went, her shiny black hair swinging behind her. She seemed somewhat calmer than Lily as she shook hands with the Minister and went to stand beside the girl without even looking at her. "And now, Miss Susan Bones of Hufflepuff house"

They watched as a pink-faced, chubbier and rather short girl scurried from the Hufflepuff sector up onto the stage, shook an obviously weak, sweaty hand with the Minister and stood beside Cho looking utterly terrified.

"Three young ladies called upon by the fat of the ball, who will be next?" he Minister asked, his eyes flashing almost excitedly as he reached in and pulled out two more slips of parchment. "Of Ravenclaw house…. Miss Luna Lovegood"

Usually there would be a snicker but nobody made a comment as Loony Lovegood made her way dreamily and surprisingly calmly onto the stage.

"From Hufflepuff, Miss Nymphadora Tonks"

Regulus glanced to Gryffindor again, a few of his friends behind him snickered and grinned looking over to where Remus Lupin sat absolutely devastated.

They were, of course, allowed to volunteer provided they were of the same sex as another tribute, if Lupin were female there was no doubt in Regulus' mind he would be on his feet volunteering right at this very moment.

"From Slytherin house, Miss Pansy Parkinson!" he called.

Regulus almost missed the seventh name to be called as Narcissa Black.

"I volunteer!" the words were out of the mouth of Bellatrix before Narcissa had even got up from her seat. Everyone turned to stare, this was no shock that Bellatrix would protect her sister.

So like them. Regulus sighed softly, his cousins were very protective of one another.

Bellatrix brushed past her sister before she made her way up onto the stage, shook hands and glowered down the rest of the female tributes.

"Of Ravenclaw house, Rita Skeeter!"

They watched as a girl with tight blonde curls and a sharp face slid coolly up onto the stage apparently not intimidated at all by Bellatrix's threatening demeanour.

"From Slytherin house…. Dolores Umbridge!"

There were actually a few smirks when the resident bitch of the school went striding smartly up onto there, her flat face etched with something close to an arrogant smile.

Regulus rolled his eyes.

"Of Gryffindor house, Katie Bell!"

Another name was drawn shortly after to be Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff and then finally they were down to the last name.

"The final name for our female tributes is…." There was a pause. "Ginevra Weasley of Gryffindor house!"

There was another shock of silence but most people were quite placid watching the young woman make her way up onto the stage. Regulus knew her, she was in first year, just turned twelve.

When she was standing shakily and pale with the other tributes, there was a pause.

"And now, we will finally be moving onto the boys" the Minister smiled making his way over to his right where the second reaping ball stood filled with male names.

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips and looked down once again, Dumbledore remained as blank as ever as he reached in for a name.

"The first male tribute of this year's annual Hunger Games is…." He paused longer for greater effect. "Oliver Wood of Gryffindor house!"

People in Gryffindor turned in sympathy at their Quidditch team captain. Wood looked almost nauseated but he pursed his lips and went onto the stage the same way the girls did and continued the line-up with about a metre gap from the females.

"Our second tribute is…. Zacharias Smith of Hufflepuff house!"

They watched the boy make his way up to the stage looking green with terror as he shook the Ministers hand the stood beside Wood looking petrified as anything.

Regulus' heart was hammering in his chest, he could feel the nerves radiating from his other male friends as they sat waiting gripping the edges of the bench and looking down at their laps. For a moment there he thought Evan might actually be sick!

"From Slytherin house…. Theodore Nott!"

Regulus cringed horribly and his head turned sharp to look at the boy in the same year as Malfoy, he looked surprisingly calm and aloof as he took his place on the stage.

"Of Gryffindor house, Seamus Finnigan!"

He was a second year boy.

"Our fifth male tribute is…. Mr Gilderoy Lockhart of Ravenclaw house!" the Minister called brightly.

Regulus groaned watching as Lockhart jumped to his feet proudly puffing his chest out, he swaggered up onto the stage but slightly cowered when Bellatrix shot him a look as though she may be actually planning to devour his intestines in the arena. Regulus' lips twitched into a smirk, that was something likely to happen.

"Of Slytherin house…."

Regulus' breath caught in his throat.

"Draco Malfoy!"

Draco let out a terrified gasp and got up shakily, by the time he was in line he was drenched in sweat like many of the other tributes.

Regulus listened vaguely as George Weasley of Gryffindor was called up along with Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff for places seven and eight.

"And now we have number nine…. James Potter of Gryffindor house!"

Regulus heard the excitable squeak escape from Severus' throat watching as James went up a determined look on his face as he passed Lily and stepped into his place.

"Number ten is…. Peter Pettigrew of Gryffindor house!" he called.

"Lots of Gryffindor's going down the crapper, right?" Evan snickered to him.

Regulus smiled weakly, it wasn't something to laugh or even joke about but he knew his friend was just trying to keep things light and even.

"Number eleven is…. Severus Snape of Slytherin house"

There was a few gasps ringing through as their friends looked to Severus in horror as he got up nervously and made his way onto the stage trying to look as calm as possible.

Regulus felt awful, his friend was going into the arena to face everything.

"And now we are down to not only our last tribute, but the last tribute of the games this year" the Minister said loudly, a sinister ring to his voice as he rubbed his hands together excitedly and reached into the ball.

They all watched with baited breath, hearts hammering in their chest as he pulled out a folded piece of paper.

"Our final tribute is…. Regulus Black of Slytherin house"

Regulus' stomach gave a violent lurch and he clapped a hand over his mouth, the taste of bile rising into his mouth. He tried to regain himself as Evan grabbed him and shoved him forward so he stumbled forward gritting his teeth, his legs were shaking badly as he got up onto the stage.

There was a pause whilst everybody stared.

"AND THAT IS CLOSED, no more volunteers may-"

"I VOLUNTEER!" someone cried.

Regulus looked up through tear-filled eyes to the Gryffindor side where his brother was on his feet his hand on his chest.

"I volunteer as tribute in my brother's place" he said firmly, a shaky finger pointing towards Regulus.

"I'm sorry but the volunteering is over now, it's sealed the magical contract, you are too-"

"Unseal it then!" Sirius insisted.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that, young man…." The Minister spoke slowly, a sympathetic look on his face.

Sirius looked distraught.

"So, everyone behold the twenty four tributes of this years' Hunger Games. We will be taking them to the Ministry but family members and close friends may sign up to visit this evening and wish their luck and goodbye's for the arena" the Minister went on.

Regulus couldn't hear him speak, he was numb with shock and horror.

"Tomorrow the training begins, we will be broadcasting here from tomorrow morning so you may watch from then on" he continued to explain then turned to the tributes gesturing for them to make their way out of the side door.

In a line everyone left, Regulus could hear his brother's screams as the door was closed behind them….

….


	2. Chapter 2 The Ministry

Regulus' entire body was numb, he felt as though his entire body had been held under water for too long as he was marched in a line out of the castle and into the grounds. Nobody uttered a word as their guards marched alongside of them armed with their wands. He didn't dare look up, didn't dare meet anyone's eyes just in case. He'd watched plenty of games before since he was a child to know what would happen, they would be taken from the grounds and would be taken to the Ministry by Port Key where they would be registered and shown to their quarters for an afternoon of an early feast and then being 'made to look pretty'. Before the interviews took place later on, they would be given a chance to say goodbye to their families and then finally the interviews would begin this evening and the entire nation would watch. Regulus felt sick to his stomach.

"No more than eight to a Port Key" the Minster said clapping and pointing to the objects on the floor. Each of them was a small Ministry seal and Regulus felt sick to his stomach as he knelt down to the ground ready to grab it on their mark.

"That's right" they heard the guards saying. "No need to be nervous, we're just going to the Ministry, nobody is going to the arena just yet"

Regulus tried not to think of his mother and father at home, they would have seen this by now, they would be in ruins.

"Grab a hold now!" the Minster's voice rang through his ears and Regulus grasped a hold of the seal like everyone else in the ground and within three seconds he was being whisked away hurtling at top speed away from here, away from everything and away from his life….

He didn't have time to think before he'd slumped down hard in the lobby of the Ministry, the waves of shock that radiated up his ankles and calves was the least of his problems now. What did a little pain matter when you were going to die?

"Is everyone here then?" the Minister said as he arrived quite safely accompanied by two guards. His eyes roamed over the twenty four tributes. "Very well then, I'd like to leave you in the capable hands of my assistant whom will take you through for your registration then you will be finding out which area you represent and will be sent in to the dressing rooms for your required glamorisation but first we will join together in a feast" he said clapping his hands together. "This is Myra Barkins and she will be looking after you over the next few days, if you need anything or have a problem you may go to her freely and she will help you as best she can" he smiled sweetly.

Regulus' eyes roamed over the woman, she was only in her early twenties with long blonde hair and large blue eyes, a heart-shaped face and she was very pretty.

"Hello all" she said lightly. "If you'd like to follow me I will take you through to each be registered, it won't take very long and once you have been registered you can move on and be taken to your living quarters" she explained gesturing a hand behind her to where an enormous archway lead into another part of the Ministry.

Regulus swallowed and glanced over at the fountain billowing water, it was all so professional here, who knew they ran such terrible tasks? He wanted to get as much out of whatever he was doing now as possible because he knew his lifespan was tick, tick, ticking away along with the rest of the tributes. Who really knew who would come out on top? Nobody but they would have a better idea after training.

Without a fuss they followed the woman, consciously aware they had armed guards walking along the sides and behind them to make sure nobody caused a problem or tried to escape. Once you were selected there was no turning back, not even for the people that paid to get out of it, they would never leave.

As they walked their footsteps echoed, the Ministry was somewhat dead today, not for a lack of workers though but for a lack of sound. Each person they passed stopped and bowed their head out of sheer respect for them, The Games were more than the Triwizard tournament they were worth a lot more than any of these competitions people entered because twenty three innocent lives would end at the hands of another person.

They walked past an office desk with a young man sitting at it refusing to look anyone in the eyes as they slipped around a corner and walked for several minutes before they were taken into a large room where there were several smiling faces, all dressed in bright fuchsia robes with a name tag and the Ministry symbol emblazoned on their fronts and backs.

Regulus swallowed nervously and took one of the empty seats gathered by the door along with the other tributes as people were pulled up at random. He watched his cousin Bellatrix going up, her long dark hair, her determined, dark, heavy-lidded eyes focused undeniably, there was no denying that she intended to win, that she intended to kill and she was more than prepared to do so giving her both mental and physical advantage. James Potter went up too, his messy black hair, his glasses and those hazel eyes, he was quite well-built though he would have an advantage with thick shoulders and a decent height to him. Susan Bones still looked terrified, she was pink and trembling as the tape measure shot about her of its own accord and the women taking her weight and measurements scribbled them down quickly on her clipboard. She did not look even remotely prepared and would probably not last five minutes in the arena, although, she did have a weight advantage on her along with Pettigrew whom Regulus knew wasn't talented but he was a nasty piece of work.

Snape went up, he felt surprisingly calm as the measure tape began taking his readings. He was used to not having too much to eat, he was reasonably strong and he could run very fast, he was witty and cunning so he did have something to take into the arena with him, after all, there were many people that didn't even have that. He would most definitely be checking out his competition but there was one person in particular he'd sworn to kill before anyone else could…. James Potter.

After they asked him a few health questions and had him sign his name down he was released, he didn't meet any eyes as he passed out of fear he would lock himself instant competition. Many of the tributes wouldn't look into each other's faces before The Games knowing it could strike up an enemy, there was a boy that did that a few years ago and he was one of the first to be killed off brutally.

"Regulus Black" a young man called and he got up shakily, his eyes darting away from his friend leaving the doors. He made his way over and stood with his arms out like everyone else had done as the tape measure shot about him by magic. He felt sick, sick to his stomach at this, sick to his stomach that he would never go back to school or see his friends properly again. There was a small shred of hope they would visit but many tributes only got one or two people visit if any at all.

"Do you suffer from any medical conditions?" the man asked but Regulus was away with the fairies.

"Regulus Black?"

"Sorry?"

"Do you suffer from any medical conditions?" the man asked calmly again.

"Oh, no" the boy said shaking his head then gritted his teeth.

"Any allergies to food or medications?"

Regulus mumbled a quick no again.

"Okay" he smiled gently. "You'll be representing Greater London and your room number is thirteen, please exit the door and someone outside will show you to your quarters" he smiled handing Regulus a signed card with his name, photo they must have taken from his school file and the room number on.

Regulus swallowed the lump that appeared in his throat and nodded, he got up and left closing his eyes in a long slow blink. He wasn't about to thank these people for what they were doing, he couldn't believe anyone would want to work in this environment, anyone at all.

Once he was out he was greeted by several smiling faces looking to him enthusiastically, he flashed the card to one of them- he didn't care who- and they lead him into a lift and went up to the highest floor.

When the doors opened Regulus was greeted by the smell of cleaning fluids as they headed along the stone corridor stopping outside room number 13. The man unlocked the door and allowed Regulus inside.

"Someone will come and collect you when it is time for the feast" he said before he turned swiftly on his heels and left closing the door on the boy.

Well that was rather rude.

Regulus swallowed and turned to face the room he would spend his last days in. He gazed around, it was painted a soft, pale blue colour with an enormous four poster bed in the centre. A large window sat giving him a full and very private view over the city of London. He had a small bookcase filled with books on the history of The Games. Did anyone even bother to read them? Regulus wasn't entirely sure.

On further inspection he had a small door that lead into his own private little bathroom, all razors, knives, scissors and sharp objects had been removed, obviously to stop people from harming or killing themselves before The Games.

With a sigh he went to sit on the bed feeling the soft satin material between his fingers. He wanted so desperately to fall back and cry his eyes out, cry until there was nothing left but if he went downstairs with puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks everybody would know what he was like, they would think he was weak and showing weakness meant you were an easy target and one of the first to go which meant he had to be exceptionally well in his training sessions.

….

Regulus wasn't sure how long he'd been there before finally there was a knock on the door. He opened it and a middle aged woman was smiling at him.

"Time for the feast" she said simply and turned to walk down the corridor.

Regulus swallowed and shut his door following after her as the rest of the tributes made their way from their rooms with the people collecting them.

They squashed into the lift, some having to wait until the next one came as there wasn't enough room for everyone.

Regulus felt the bottom fall out of his stomach on the descend back down several flights, he wasn't sure how many but they hadn't gone right to the bottom. _Maybe they never would_ he thought briefly as the doors opened and interrupted his train of thought once again.

Nobody spoke as they were taken into a large dining room, a long table sat with no name cards and people just took whatever seat was closest to them. Beside Regulus, Dolores Umbridge had sat, her large curls pinned back neatly, her wide face etched with boredom and her lips pursed as her eyes wandered over the exceptionally fine cutlery.

It was always like this, Regulus knew that and so did everyone else, the tributes were always given the best of the best things before they were sent into the epic battle of the year. They were fed, spoiled, pampered and interviewed like they were famous or something and the only person that actually seemed happy with this when everyone was seated and the food finally appeared on the table was Gilderoy Lockhart. Regulus' eyes narrowed and he saw Snape looking venomously at the boy sitting just a few places down the table from them on the opposite side.

"All this press coverage is really great, you know!" he said loudly to Seamus whom rolled his eyes. "Just think about the winner of the games, will he or she be famous their whole life? The other ones are!" he beamed reaching up and tossing a lock of golden curls from his forehead turning to grin at everyone with a winning smile.

They knew before they even had the interviews people would find the Ravenclaw charming if not slightly annoying and he would get sponsors. The sponsors were a huge part of The Games, they would determine whether or not you were sent small gifts of things such as medicine, food, weapons whilst in the arena or not. No sponsors, no help, you would do it alone and your family were not allowed to sponsor you.

"And for those of us who aren't so privileged" he looked mainly to Snape on this one. "Imagine the fame and food and money it would bring the families, oh isn't it such a good idea? Cut down a few drips and drabs of people and feed up someone else' keep only the elites in control that would be amazing" the boy sighed dreamily picking at a small salad.

Regulus' lips twitched into a smirk. _Eat up, Gilderoy_ he thought bitterly _you'll be starving in that arena otherwise so who cares about a few extra pounds now?_ Regulus had already decided that if he had to choose someone to kill in the arena, it would be Lockhart if nobody else got there first….

"So just where are you representing?" Lily Evan's voice rang down the table. "I'm representing Yorkshire with Severus" she smiled sweetly to her best friend sitting opposite her.

"Ireland" Luna replied almost dreamily petting at her long, dirty blonde hair. "I'm happy about that though, it's fine" she smiled gently.

"I'm doing Ireland too" Seamus grinned to Luna. "We'll be arena buddies" he shot her a wink.

Regulus knew he meant they could be allies, allies were common in the arena and they were usually people that couldn't survive well alone so they would form little packs and go around savaging other people, whomever they could find but in the end they would turn on one another, sometimes whilst the other slept. It wasn't uncommon to lose your mind or yourself in the arena it had happened more than enough times before.

"I'm representing Greater London" said Bellatrix smoothly.

"Me too" Regulus jumped in. A few people turned to glance at him but he ignored them.

Bellatrix's mouth spread into a grin. "Well then, baby cousin, I wish you all the best of luck" her voice was silky soft and Regulus hated it.

After the feast they were taken back to their rooms.

Regulus paced anxiously waiting wringing his hands together and getting up to pee every five minutes he was so stressed until finally someone opened the door and three specialists came in grinning.

All were dressed in Muggle clothing, tight jeans, bright tops, heavy accessories and hair done up. They looked like what one might called a 'Traveller' but Regulus knew this was the required look for the makeup team.

"Good afternoon, Regulus Black?" the youngest one, a female asked her blonde eyebrows shooting into her rounded hairline.

Regulus nodded unable to think of anything intelligent to say that wouldn't greatly offend her at this very moment.

"Good" she smiled sweetly. "We've been given orders as your personal make up team to make you up for this evening's parade and your interviews" she went on as they carted in a rack of clothing and what not.

Regulus got to his feet and allowed them to pull him onto the stood by the dresser, he gazed at his reflection in the mirror, he looked pale and nervous but otherwise he was okay.

He couldn't listen, he felt so frightened and angry as they tugged at his long, black hair, examined his silver eyes, ran different potions and brushes over his skin making it look as immaculate as they could.

Regulus allowed himself to be pulled into the bathroom, he allowed them to undress him and put him in the baths scrubbing his skin with more potions and rough brushes that made him wince but right now he didn't care.

"At least we aren't going to be waxing this year" he blushed madly when he heard the male with his hair shaved on the sides, a little tuft on top dyed bright green. Was that a sign of Slytherin house? Regulus wasn't sure.

After his bath he was rubbed down all over with towels, dried with wands and some strange clear oil sprayed all over his body.

"It's to help your skin glow when you're in your interview later on" they said and allowed him to pull some underwear and socks.

"We want to put you in something that will scream you're strong, you're only a little thing, aren't you?" the woman giggled patting his head making Regulus wrinkled his nose with distaste.

Sure, he was about five feet tall and weighed barely one hundred pounds, he knew he was very tiny even for fourteen but he couldn't help that. Instead he watched them select some black skinny jeans, a satin, emerald shirt with silver stitching weaved through the collar and the cuffs. They dressed him and pulled a heavy black velvet cloak around him pinning various badges of snaked, Ministry symbols onto him, tucking and primping his clothes to perfection and even polishing his thoroughly shiny shoes as the man began lining his eyes with heavy eyeliner and filling in his eyebrows.

"Why do I have to wear makeup?" he asked bluntly. "I'm a guy"

"It makes your eyes stand out on camera" the man replied with a smile. "The more you stand out, the better"

"Why are you weighing me down with heavy stuff, it'll make me shrink further" he asked giving his arms a wave again.

They all laughed.

"Oh, baby, it's to make you look smaller and more like a child" the woman grinned. "You're fourteen years old, legal but you're so tiny we think it can be used to your advantage" she smiled as she began fixing his hair into place.

"If we dress you up too much with those big eyes it will decrease your age further" the man explained. "People will think you're a sweet, innocent little boy and they will sponsor you and you'll be recognised, that's why we want you to be as cute as possible at your interview"

"Cute?" Regulus blinked effectively almost smudging his eyeliner.

"Just be yourself" the girl winked. "You'll have them eating out of the palm of your hand"

Regulus wasn't so sure about that.

….

It took around three hours to complete him and after which time he was left alone with instructions not to do anything silly, exercise or rub at his face and hair. Regulus wanted to do all of those things right now but he knew it was almost time.

At five he would get a short visiting period from anyone that cared about him. He watched the elegant, classical clock on the wall ticking away the time. It was rather beautiful but Regulus felt the urge to smash it into pieces with rage because the blasted thing was ticking away precious seconds of his life.

Once the clock struck five there was a knock at the door.

"Come in" he called shakily and there was a pause before the door opened and Sirius appeared a guard nodded to him and closed the door on the boys.

"Sirius…." Regulus gasped leaping to his feet.

Sirius did something that shocked even Regulus, he ran to his brother and embraced him in a tight hug.

Regulus felt all the emotions pouring out of him and he choked on a sob fighting the tears away, he would be in trouble if he smeared his face all over the place.

"Regulus" Sirius breathed cradling the boy and pressing his cheek to Regulus' temple. "Shh, don't cry, it's okay"

"No it isn't okay, Sirius!" he cried pulling back to look into his brother's face but still clinging a hold of him at the same time.

"I'm going to die!"

"Regulus you won't die" Sirius said but Regulus had zero faith in the tone of his voice.

"I will, I will go into that arena and be killed along with twenty two others" he choked out.

"You have as much chance as anyone else" Sirius said firmly guiding his brother down to sit on the edge of the bed, he pulled the boy central on the large bed and into his lap cuddling him softly, something he normally never did.

"Oh really?" Regulus breathed. "What about Bella?"

Sirius hesitated. "She's unstable but you could take her, she isn't using magic"

"She's about a foot taller than me, she's eighteen and she very strong, Sirius, why did you think she volunteered for Narcissa?" Regulus sniffed sadly.

"Because she likes the thought of others in pain, just stay away from her and let someone else have her if they can" Sirius said quickly. "Snape might be able to take her, James might, Tonks might…."

Regulus sniffed slowly and nodded, he knew what Sirius was saying made sense but at the same time he was still terrified and he knew his brother was only trying to settle him down. "That doesn't help, even if someone does take her out I still have them to worry about too"

Sirius swallowed and averted his eyes. He knew what his brother was saying was right and he knew he couldn't fully calm the boy, that's why he volunteered because Sirius had far better chances in the arena than Regulus did. "I don't want to say this but I'm going to lose a brother in that arena whether it is you or James and I don't want to lose both of you"

Regulus looked shocked. "You came to see me…." He breathed.

"Yes, and I can only visit one so I chose you rather than James" Sirius said.

"You love me" Regulus breathed his eyes widening.

"Yes, I do, Reg" Sirius smiled gently. "Why do you think I volunteered for you?"

"To be on the arena with Potter?"

Sirius shook his head. "No, to keep you out of the arena but I was just a few seconds too late, I was numb and I am so, so sorry I wasn't fast enough for you…." He breathed pulling Regulus back into his arms hugging him tightly. "I don't want to lose you, Reg, but you're my blood and you're my baby brother I have to protect you over a friend" he breathed.

Regulus hugged Sirius back much tighter. "How are mum and dad taking it?"

Sirius hesitated a moment too long.

"That good, huh?"

"They're coping" Sirius breathed.

"But they didn't come to see me" Regulus whispered.

"Because they don't want to see you like this and if they should lose you…." Sirius said awkwardly.

"You're not helping but I'm glad for your honesty" Regulus swallowed the lump that appeared in his throat. Great, so not even his parents wanted to come and see him, his friends sure didn't back at school so he just had Sirius whom he was very grateful for though.

A small bell chimed announcing the end of the visiting and the door opened.

"Time to say goodbye, boys" the man breathed through to them.

Regulus let out a sob and clutched Sirius tighter as the boy gave him a tight hug and leaned down pressing his lips softly to his brother's.

"I love you, Regulus, don't forget that and I will do ANYTHING I can to help you in the arena, stay calm, keep your focus, get away from other tributes and make sure you get some water, use your training to the best you can, you might be smaller and skinnier and physically weaker but you have a brain, use it, Reg" he smiled gently tears trickling down his cheeks.

Regulus couldn't say anything he just nodded.

"Goodbye" Sirius breathed running his fingers over Regulus' cheek.

"I love you, Sirius" Regulus sniffled sadly.

Sirius felt his heart breaking in his chest. "I love you too, Regulus" he breathed before turning and leaving the room. The guard shut the door behind him and Regulus fell from the bed onto the floor writing in emotional agony. Now he knew what it felt like to be a tribute, to truly leave everything behind and go into a fight to the death where only one of them would come out alive.

….

It was some time later when Regulus heard the door open, the same young woman that took over this morning came out and she smiled to him.

"Time to go down for the parade- what are you doing on the floor?" she blinked.

Regulus stared up at her feeling stupid and numb. "Oh, I don't know"

"Come on then" she chuckled reaching for his hand to pull him to his feet. She buffed out his robes with her wand before taking him back along the corridor and into the lifts.

They went to the very ground floor and were swiftly taken through a maze of corridors. Regulus hurried to keep up as he spotted other tributes looking equally as confused as he was. They weren't going outside for the parade?

When they finally reached one of the furthest back rooms, Regulus gasped, the chariots were beautiful, gorgeous sleek horses pulling them decorated accordingly. He vaguely registered someone pinning a number to the collar of his velvet cloak and leading him over to chariot number two. A deep stone grey colour, decorated with shingles and tiles all glimmering deeply in the light, the horse wore what appeared to be cracked-effect reins and a harness with long sharp blades sticking from the headwear and Regulus looked up when he felt Bella sit down beside him.

She looked beautiful in a long, elegant emerald green gown, expensive silver jewellery adorned her and he held out his arm, she took it with a mocking laugh.

"Don't we make quite the pair?"

Regulus found himself smiling and he nodded watching as Lockhart came striding by proudly wearing Dolores on his arm, her hair was pinned to the high heavens, they were both wearing immaculate, shining gold robes and sat down directly in front of them in the sparkling gold carriage for one. Regulus turned around feeling almost excited watching Luna and Seamus climb into the carriage three for Northern Ireland, their carriage was painted with intricate designs Regulus had only seen Muggles use of old printing press', music players and such. They were both wearing bright silver outfits, shimmering with strange headwear.

Behind them in four Cedric Diggory and Susan Bones got in wearing a scaly suit and a rainbow dress, nets and stars covered their carriage, obviously for the South East. In five was Lily and Snape, Regulus waved to him as he got in wearing a smoky brown and black outfit that seemed to be faintly emitting smoke itself, Lily wore a charcoal black dress and their carriage was painted in lightning bolts, power. For carriage six, Wood and Katie got in, it was painted a bright scarlet and had the patterns of carriage windows on the sides just like the Hogwarts Express. Transportation and the central England.

Seven was covered in trees, George and Ginny Weasley got in dressed in camouflage outfits, behind them in eight Rita and Potter climbed in wearing brightly coloured patchwork and matching net hats showing their alliance with the West Midlands. In nine they were wearing a dusty yellow colour with green trousers, their chariot was painted with yellow corns and wheat shimmering in the fields as the images moved representing the Scottish Isles, in ten was Cho and Peter for Scotland dressed in horns and brown furry suits that made Regulus choke back a laugh, it looked like something Hagrid would wear.

Eleven was filled before Regulus had got there with Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson wearing a loin cloth and a furry swim costume covered in leaves, the agriculture of Devon and the New Forest! And finally twelve, in twelve Tonks and Nott wore billowing black robes and black hard hats, representing Lancashire.

Regulus gazed back and forth at the nervous but somehow excitable tributes whom in the midst of all the excitement of costumes, parades and flare had apparently forgotten what this all symbolised.

The sound of the trumpets blaring overhead caught their attention, there was a roar of the crowd as slowly the curtains were pulled aside and the carriages took off, the sleek horses of many colours (some even changing colour thanks to charms) trotted out, their knees high, nostrils flaring.

Regulus let out a cry of shock that couldn't be heard over the crowd, people were gathering on upper floors and on stands set up tightly around the edges of the rooms watching their carriage pass. They waved at people, but Regulus felt entirely overwhelmed by it all, the confetti, fireworks, the music he wondered how any of the horses were coping with this, mind you, they were probably very highly trained to do so.

They massed through passage after passage, some very narrow knowing they were being recorded as they passed and reached through the main lobby where the most people were. Regulus could hear a commentators voice booming overhead commenting on their outfits, their representations, their happiness, how they must be feeling right now.

Finally it came to an end and they were allowed out of the carriages in privacy, Regulus felt dizzy from all the flash photography, the lights were almost blinding him!

They were hurried away into the lifts where their makeup was touched up by their teams, they were sent in twos upwards to fuck knows where.

The interview room was three floors above them and the other tributes were lined up outside the double black, sliding doors which were open but you had to stand behind a line so people couldn't see you. Minutes after Regulus had appeared with Bellatrix, the next couple appeared from three and so on.

Regulus could feel the high levels of magic buzzing in the air when he spotted the other tribute lines ready for them to take behind one another. He paid no attention to the shining number 2 on himself as he joined the line with Bellatrix. A few more tributes came filing in, gained their numbers and joined the cue waiting.

"And now, we will be bringing in our first tributes who will be representing the Channel Islands, Gilderoy Lockhart and Dolores Umbridge!"

Regulus swallowed nervously, he didn't think they would happen straight off the bat like this as one of his stylists pinched at his hair flipping it back into place as he tilted his head forward trying to gather some anxious composure.

He watched Lockhart and Umbridge striding into the room, all he could see was part of the waiting crowd but a banner dropped down showing them what was happening in the room.

A young man with bright electric blue hair sat on a cushy chair grinning to the audience with perfectly lined, white teeth, white skin which he'd tanned heavily to be on show to the whole nation whom would be watching right now, everybody back at the castle would be sitting in the Great Hall biting their nails down to the beds as they watched.

Lockhart and Umbridge laughed as they dropped into their seats.

"Good evening to the both of you, seeing as we only have three minutes" the man winked to the camera. "I will get straight into this, how did you feel, each in turn, when your names were drawn from the reaping ball"

"Well, Caesar" Gilderoy said in his usual arrogant tone. "I felt devastated of course but I also felt proud, I get to represent the gorgeous District 1 in this years Games, who wouldn't feel lucky to have that?" he wavered his shoulders and grinned to the camera flashing his dazzling white teeth.

The crowd cheered for him muttering excitedly.

"And I felt honourable to be chosen, my family will be so proud, my great grandfather came from those Islands you know" Dolores spoke pursing her lips slightly, her thick eyebrows disappearing into her hairline.

There was an applause.

Regulus watched as the rest of this painful interview went on, they obviously didn't need to be told how to behave as the audience was eating them up, with Lockhart's charm and Umbridge's level of control and her brain they made a deadly pair, they would get plenty of sponsors in the arena….

When their interview was over they walked out a door on the opposite side of the stage.

"And now for out tributes from Two, we have the lovely Miss Bellatrix Black and her younger cousin, Regulus Black!" the man called rising to his feet and applauding.

Regulus was frozen until a pair of hands shoved into his back pushing him forward. He stumbled but made his way alongside Bellatrix out into the interview room. They sat down slowly, Bellatrix grinning menacingly at everybody around her. Regulus knew she wasn't playing games or putting this on, she was going to be herself regardless and hope it would win her sponsors if she even wanted them.

He smiled nervously.

"Wow, two first cousins battling it out to win the title of the victor" the man said slowly nodding at them.

Regulus swallowed.

"How does that feel to both of you?" he asked curiously.

"Well" Bellatrix said loudly. "As much as it pains me to be against my poor baby cousin, Reggie here, I will still do what I can to win the title and just hope that nothing too brutal becomes of him" she shot him an overly sympathetic look that made his insides squirm.

Caesar looked sadly to Regulus and stuck out his bottom lip before turning back to Bella. "Now, Bellatrix-"

"You can call me Bella" she winked at him.

"Bella then" he smiled. "I heard you volunteered in place of your sister, is that correct?"

She looked to the audience and nodded. "My youngest sister, Narcissa, I couldn't bare the thought of harm coming to her, she's fragile girl it wouldn't do for her to be in here at all, mummy will be ever so proud" her voice was breathy – obviously trying to gain sympathy from the crowd.

A distinct 'aww' rang through the air and Caesar grasped her hand gently.

Regulus' heart was hammering in his chest, they had about two minutes left of their interview and he'd said nothing, he'd been made to look unimportant, like a child, nobody would remember him.

"Do you feel confident going into the arena?" he directed at Bellatrix again.

Regulus had seen this happen before, when the second tribute was ignored the whole time and was taken out easily with no sponsors, no help and nobody to remember them.

"I feel very confident, Caesar and I vow to do my best in winning these Games no matter what it costs, I will spare nobody if that is what it takes" her eyes were focused on the crowd but Regulus saw a glimmer in them.

"Now, tell me, Bella" the man smiled again. "Is there a special man in your life?" he asked his eyebrows rising curiously into his hairline.

"Well-"

"There's plenty of special men in her life" Regulus blurted out with a smirk on his face before he even knew what he'd done.

Bellatrix turned to stare at him in horror.

The crowd laughed and Caesar grinned. "Oh, is that so?"

"Yup" Regulus grinned opening his enormous eyes as wide as he could to look innocent. "I know many tributes wouldn't dare say that to someone they were about to go into the arena with but I know my big cousin Bella wouldn't hurt me because I love her" he grinned leaning forward to hug her tightly a smile etched across his face.

In reality he did not love her in the slightest, but this was working when the crowd called an 'aww' again and placed their hands on their chests.

"He's adorable" he heard one woman say.

"Aww, isn't that lovely, Bella?" Caesar grinned to the girl, her eyes were wide and lips parted with shock. A rare look on Bellatrix Black.

Regulus released her and beamed up at her, he knew what the team had said about him being cute and he could pull it off effortlessly. Now Bellatrix was trapped, if she killed him straight away nobody would sponsor her so she had a tough decision ahead of her.

"And, Regulus seeing as only have seconds to spare, who was it that volunteered in your place just a little too late?" the man asked quickly his eyes flashing with curiosity.

"My big brother Sirius" he grinned. "He's a lot braver than I am" he smiled gently, almost sadly.

The crowd were loving it, the little sounds they were making, one man was nearly in tears and Regulus was beaming on the inside, his heart was pounding and his throat was dry with anxiety but he was coming out on top of this one.

"Well that's all we have time for, District 2 tributes please make your way backstage where you can watch the rest of the interviews" he smiled rising to his feet again still holding Bella's hand.

They got up, smiled to the cameras and waved, Regulus made a point of taking his cousins' hand and bowing to the crowd before they headed off backstage still smiling.

He wasn't a Slytherin for nothing….

As soon as they were backstage the team were all over them congratulating them, Lockhart and Umbridge looked sour to say the least that they were pretty much upstaged by a fourteen year old.

"Next we have District three and Miss Luna Lovegood and Mister Seamus Finnigan!" Caesar called, the crowd cheered and hollered as usual and watched curiously as they came striding out onto the stage, Luna practically skipping.

Regulus fought back a smirk, this had to be good.

"Hello and how are you both doing today?" the man asked curiously.

"We're doing alright, it's very overwhelming here at the Ministry" Seamus laughed lounging back in his chair. So he was going for a comical approach, okay then.

"I've always wanted to meet you" Luna cut across just as the interviewer was about to speak.

He looked surprised. "Really? Well it's a pleasure to meet you too, Luna" he smiled. "Now, your father is a publisher of The Quibbler magazine, correct?"

"Yes, he is" she smiled back dreamily. "I believe he published an article on you a year or so ago now" she blinked her enormous eyes at him.

The crowd snickered knowing exactly what the man had written.

"Yes, well, enough of that I think I should be asking you how you feel going into the arena?" he asked looking to Seamus again.

"I think I'd like to hear more of Luna" he grinned and the crowd erupted into cheers of laughter for the boy.

Caesar looked awkward.

By the time their interview was over, the man looked red in the face from frustration and Luna happily skipped backstage. She had outshone Seamus but perhaps not in a good way.

Four was up next and their interview went plainly and smoothly with Cedric trying to win their side with his looks and Susan making silly, failed jokes. Five and Severus and Lily were on, Lily did most of the talking and Severus commented on how they were best friends and it was agonising for them to be apart.

"And is there anyone special in your life, Miss Evans?" Caesar asked his eyes flickering between them.

Severus' heart sped up in his chest.

"Yes actually, there is" the girl blushed madly looking down at her lap.

Severus' eyebrows rose and Caesar smiled to him. "Who might it be?" he pressed.

"Just a boy…." She breathed.

"When you win he will be all over you no doubt, a pretty thing like you are" he nodded to her hair. "Such lovely hair you've got there"

"Thank you" she smiled. "But if I win he won't be all over me…." She said sadly.

"Why is that?" the man asked curiously.

"If I win he will be dead and so will my best friend" she looked sadly to Severus. "I don't want them to die but I also don't want to end my life so soon myself" she explained shaking her head quickly, a few curls falling loose.

"What a pity" the man said sadly. "It's a terrible shame when things like this happen but the course of true love never does run smooth" he smiled to her sympathetically.

Severus looked gutted when they finally walked off of the stage.

Six and Seven interviews were very much the same, Wood started talking about how he hoped to become a Professional Quidditch player someday and went into detail about how Katie was on the Gryffindor team with him and they would work well as a team and could maybe hold an alliance in the arena.

What an idiot.

Eight came up next and Rita as per usual appeared elusive and somewhat deadly flashing her sharp teeth at the camera and rolling her eyes in a silly sort of manner when questions were asked. James Potter appeared as arrogant as usual.

"I will not stop until I kill him" Severus said bitterly under his breath.

Regulus shot him a smirk. "At least one good thing came out of this tournament then" he chuckled softly and Severus shot him a grin.

The number nine interview would be forgotten in a second along with ten apart from the fact Pettigrew fell over on the stage and tore Cho's dress.

"I think she will be the first to murder him given half a chance" Lockhart burst out laughing.

"I think I'll be the first to kill _you_" Regulus muttered to Severus whom burst out laughing.

"Leave a scrap for me to find of him, okay?"

Regulus nodded. This was surprisingly easy and maybe that was because they were amongst friends and people they knew, maybe it was easier for now but once they faced off together in the arena they would have a lot of trouble killing each other, maybe it was an effect, maybe they just allowed the tributes to go mad temporarily on purpose.

Regulus knew some of the people who came out as winners were fucked in the head afterwards and many never lived normally but some did, many did actually it just depended on the person and the arena setting but they wouldn't know anything about that until they actually arrived there.

Of course when the interview for Eleven came, Draco and Pansy were all over one another, cuddled up, kissing and even crying about their love being torn apart brutally by the games and by the end of their interview everyone was in tears.

When Twelve came it was the very last one of this year, Nymphadora Tonks and Theodore Nott. Regulus made the mental note that they actually looked quite nice together, Tonks and her startling pink hair, her tiny heart-shape feminine face, Nott and his tall, slim frame and his fluffy brown hair. They looked almost like a couple anyway but Regulus knew how much of a state Lupin must be in at home seeing his girlfriend going into the area to fight to her death, she was only thirteen.

When the interviews were over, the tributes were asked to walk in silence as they made their way back to their rooms.

When Regulus got inside he ripped off his stupid fucking costume, leapt into the shower and rubbed his skin raw trying to rid it of the sparkles and the makeup and the anxious sweat he'd been soaked in since before he arrived. When he was done he collapsed onto his bed sobbing his heart out into his pillow….

….


	3. Chapter 3 Training Begins

Hours ticked by in Regulus' dreamlike state. He could hear his life ticking away, the lives of other tributes, the lives of innocent children that wanted nothing more than normality but knew that was never going to happen. Their hopes and dreams would be crushed, no families, no loved ones, no marriage, no children, no jobs, no school career to continue on with…. No life….

He couldn't sleep, he couldn't think and every time he got close to drifting off, violent images would flash through his head of past Hunger Games, imaginary ones of this years, he could see his own death at the hands of many different people. He knew it wasn't the same as really watching his friends die, they should be allies from the same school even though they were pitting against one another. This was cruelty!

Finally close to dawn, Regulus drifted off into a proper sleep….

….

The dull tolling of a bell woke Regulus from his dreamless sleep several hours later. He sat up slowly blinking around him in his private room. He knew what the bell meant, time to get up to eat and start the first day of training.

He sat up slowly stretching his arms above his head like a cat and rubbed his tired eyes gazing around the room. Someone had been in whilst he was still sleeping and laid out some form of uniform on the end of his bed. He sighed, got up and went for a quick wash.

Minutes later and Regulus padded across the thick, warm carpet making his way over to the uniform, loose-fitting black combat trousers with a black t-shirt and a tight brown belt strapped around the bottom, strong, military boots and a hooded jumper in case he felt cold. He dressed tying the jumper around his waist, it was perfectly warm in here even when he opened the door and found the guards all waiting with drawn wands watching and guiding the way with their arms to the lifts as the tributes (all wearing the same outfits but in different colours according to District) to go for some food.

Regulus walked noticing that District 3 was wearing silver t-shirts and dark blue bottoms, twelve wore entirely black, Ten was in brown and beige and four was in blue and white. District colours, close to who they were representing.

Regulus sighed and made his way after them climbing into the lift. There were two guards armed there being sure nobody would fight and get hurt before The Games.

They stood in silence as the lift descended, nobody spoke, nobody looked at each other it was like they were constantly at a funeral. The sickening realisation cracked, they probably were at their funerals, living funerals….

Once they arrived in the stone dining room everybody sat down wherever they fancied and people waited on them bringing them different dishes to select from.

Regulus wouldn't deny that the food was good, very tasty and he did help himself to seconds and thirds not so much because he was hungry and more because he knew he had a long day of training ahead and he hadn't had that much sleep tonight. Looking around the table, apparently other people had the same idea.

Regulus ate quickly and kept his head down, today Ginny Weasley and Peter sat either side of him, he stole glances at them. Ginny was quite fairly built, slim and she looked reasonably strong, Peter was dumpy and overweight with probably wouldn't do him any good at all unless he planned to use purely physical force like a body slam on people and crush them to death. He knew Ginny would probably be more of a threat but he would soon see what people were capable of in training, they had used magic at school and they were mostly underage so having used some Muggle utensils before they weren't entirely foreign to the idea but they had never used weaponry.

After breakfast they all waited until Myra came to collect them.

"I will stay whilst you train, there will be a station ready for each of you to work at in small groups" she spoke as she lead them up a floor to the one just below their sleeping quarters. "Everyone should take at least one turn on each station to see your strengths and weaknesses but be warned that every other tribute will be able to see you too and there are no rules against watching others train" she said slowly her eyes skimming over each and every one of their nervous faces.

Nobody said anything so she turned around and flung the doors to the enormous training centre open.

Regulus' gasp died in his mouth, there was a station for knife throwing, trap setting, camouflage, food identification and many, many targeting areas to learn to use different skills and weapons in.

They all walked in as a group, nobody touching not even Draco and Pansy in their tight dark blue polo-shirts.

"You may choose whatever station you wish to work at and move around every hour to try something new, anyone who finds a particular weakness should work at it, if you can't light a fire without magic you might have trouble, if you can't set a trap to catch live food, how will you eat? How will you know what foods are safe if you don't spend time at the station of agriculture?" Myra asked turning in a full circle gesturing to the room. "Any questions?"

A few people shook their heads but most remained placid and didn't even flinch.

"Alright, you're free to go and work" she smiled clapping her hands together.

The group hesitated for a moment before they disbanded, Regulus watched as some of the more eager tributes went straight for a particular station. Bellatrix went to the knife throwing station, Severus went to the trap-setting, Luna went to agriculture and Nott went for the trident and spear throwing.

Regulus went to the closest station which turned out to be making knots, he hadn't a clue how to make them and he was scared of going for weapons straight away, besides, he was going to do as Sirius said and use his brain, he would observe the other tributes to figure out how to use these weapons instead of making an arse out of himself going for something he didn't know how to work and have twenty three other people laughing their heads off at him and seeing him as a weak, easy target. He most certainly did not want to be picked off first.

Logically speaking would it be better to go in and get killed and get it over with? Yeah because he didn't want to be there and to suffer in pain and terror or die of some sort of nasty infection, but at the same time he wanted to come out alive and to come out alive he would have to make it out of the bloodbath.

He sat with Seamus and Peter knotting away listening to directions and allowing them to correct him as his eyes swivelled around.

No surprise that Bellatrix was loving the knives, throwing them, slicing them into the dummies tearing them through their faces and chests and as soon as she was up someone cast Reparo to fix them so someone else could get a turn.

As it turns out, James Potter wasn't bad with an axe as he launched it through the air and into one of the targets several feet away, the more he threw and more times he hit his target, the faster they repaired themselves automatically by magic and moved further apart or higher up.

After an hour, Regulus moved on to the agriculture station and he was not going to muck about and watch other people at such a vital station. If he got through the bloodbath alive, he and pretty much everyone else (except maybe Snape whom was the definition of perfection when it came to potions and ingredients that included herbs and plants toxic and non-toxic) would have to work to know what was and was not safe to eat.

Regulus did not break his focus even once as he learned to identify toxic berries, safe plants, things he could cook, things that would work on his skin, things he could safely burn and such from the books and photograph's they had supplied.

Hour three arrived and Regulus was pretty much forced to move on to the knife throwing. He watched as his partner working there (Lockhart) stepped up. Regulus watched as the boy threw the knife and completely missed the target. He let out a disgruntled sound of rage before he threw his second knife and it struck the edge of the target.

"I think the knives are a little moist from the last user, sweaty no doubt" he sniffed tossing his hair from his eyes. "No big deal, I'll try next time"

The knives landed back on the table and Regulus picked them up. They were completely dry. Regulus tried to hide a smirk which faded when he realised it was his turn to throw a knife. An item he's only ever used for eating. He swallowed examining it knowing people were probably going to be watching him right now, he weighed it in his hand when he was really taking in the length of the blade, the deadly sharpness, if that hit you even with a slow throw or a gentle throw it would tear straight through human flesh no problem.

He swallowed and walked to where the x was marked. His eyes trained on the target, he threw the knife without thinking wanting to get it over with forcing back his wince as he threw the blade. A second later and the sound of it striking about three inches into the target from the edge rang through the air and Regulus grinned to himself. He'd hit it on the first go.

This time he was more prepared when he threw the knife and it hit the edge of the target, sure it wasn't great, other people earlier had been hitting the centre, people like Nott, Bella and even Lily but he was hitting it and that was better than Lockhart, it was something, if he hadn't missed the target once in his first five throws of tossing knives, that would make him seem somewhat of a threat.

Oh his sixth turn, he hit the bulls eye.

Hour four arrived and they had a break for lunch. Regulus was starving, his hands were aching but thankfully not blistered like some peoples were. Most people were not talking just eying each other warily, it was only the first day of training but they were beginning to show some strengths and weaknesses, insecurity would strike eventually and alliances would be formed by the end of the week.

After half an hour for eating and a half hour rest break, they headed back into training and Regulus went to the spearing section right close to the tridents. He lifted one and threw it, it soared straight past the target and clattered against the stone wall miles behind him.

"If that were in the arena someone else could take it and throw it back at you, no way would you live this long after tossing that" Pansy laughed loudly behind him.

Regulus felt his cheeks go red and he threw it again, this time it fell short and hit the ground miles before the target. He cringed horribly hearing the other's laughing behind him, snickers echoing. He wasn't the first person to be laughed at, Pettigrew had been laughed at moments before with the knife throwing, he'd done pretty much the same thing but Regulus had done better with the throwing and his knotting, Umbridge was laughed at in the bow and arrow section when she slipped on the floor and shot an arrow into one of the wall torches effective incinerating it.

At two they changed stations again, Regulus was forced to turn to the stamina strength section where they would be basically lifting weights. With his height and his weight there was no way he was lifting very heavy stuff so he stuck to the lighter ones and used his time to watch people and was shocked to find little Ginny Weasley of all people hitting bulls eye targets with her bow and arrows, the worst shot she got was two rings outside the centre, she never missed her target….

By three it was the end of their first day of training, they were released to wash up and have some time alone before dinner and then they would be released into a common area to prepare with books, spreadsheets and recordings of the previous winners victories so they could study and learn from them if they didn't want to chatter.

….

After his soothing shower, Regulus collapsed back onto his bed, although the day had only been nine to three he was still tired, he was aching and he just needed a break.

When it was time for dinner someone came to collect him and they met up in the dining room where they dropped into their seats for dinner.

"How did you find your first day?" Severus asked with a grin as he sank down beside Severus.

"Tiring, you?" Regulus said slowly picking at his chicken.

"It was alright" Severus chuckled softly. "There was plenty of variety in stations and in people"

Regulus smiled and nodded to him. "Would it be wrong to ask what your best was?"

"Well, yes, but I've always been good at potions, identifying herbs and with foods" Severus went on. "That is public knowledge and has been since day one at Hogwarts, how about you?"

Regulus hesitated. "I'm not too bad with stuff, I'm not good either" he said very quietly so other people couldn't hear. "I want to get better and it's only the first day…."

"You'll be okay" Severus said gently.

"Do you really think I have a shot at winning The Games?" Regulus asked pursing his lips and desperately searching Severus' eyes.

"Well, if I wasn't in the arena with you then yes" the boy smirked. "I do think you have a shot but you're not…. Brutal or aggressive like many of the others are"

"That could change" Regulus jumped in.

"I doubt it"

And with that, Severus turned back to his dinner leaving Regulus staring at his plate. Suddenly he didn't feel so hungry any more.

After dinner he went to the common room, guards were everywhere to prevent fights breaking out and the possibility of people trying to kill each other before The Games had even begun. He sat in a private corner alone pouring over the books, they had to teach him something and he was going to learn as much as possible before he went in.

After a while he looked up and saw Susan busy scribbling down notes, they were allowed to take notes and read them in their spare time before The Games started but would be stripped of any information as soon as they had begun.

A few others were reading books, some were standing chatting or just sizing each other up.

Regulus sighed, he didn't want to kill any of these people, would he even be able to if it came to it? He wasn't big or scary or confident like many of the others were, he wasn't dangerous or strong or talented like some of them were but he was going to heed his brother's advice, head for cover with water and use his brain.

By the time Regulus fell into bed that night he fell straight into sleep….

….

Tuesday morning was basically a repeated with being up at eight for breakfast and into the training area for nine wearing the same outfit which had been washed and dried overnight. This time, Regulus decided to try his hand at archery, he was terrible with throwing a spear and knew that a trident would be well out of his league especially when he saw the strong, muscles seventeen year old Cedric launching one further than any of the other tributes had before. It was scary watching other people excel, if this were just a training area for an exam or for sports and fun it would be great to watch and may even be good fun but it wasn't, each and every person in here was bettering themselves for the arena, bettering themselves to kill and Regulus did not want any part of it but it wasn't exactly like he had a fucking choice a about any of this.

He aimed his bow, slick and black and thin, the string was so tight his arrow was difficult to steady, it took him a moment…. A little too long but he shot and his the bottom of the target. Not bad at all for a first try really. The second he shot missed, and the third but the forth hit the top of the target, second ring in and he felt rather proud.

When the hour was up he went to the camo station and listened to the instructions the trainers were giving, he wasn't a brilliant artist but he had managed to camouflage himself somewhat using the utensils there and it gave him an hour to watch other people.

Ginny was excelling with her boy, Cedric back with his trident, flexing his strong arms and grinning to himself in a sort of menacing way. He knew the boy wasn't actually aggressive and this was more to make others feel threatened. His eyes travelled to James whom was throwing his knives and missing, Hannah Abbott was doing perfectly at the target training and Regulus actually felt rather surprised watching her at just how good she was with her knives.

Hour three and it was time for them to change again, Regulus decided he was going to try with a sword, he hadn't used one before and if it was anything like a wand he wouldn't be too shabby with it.

As it turns out a wand was nothing like a sword but he was doing okay slashing the targets.

"You need more strength in your wrists" one of the trainers told him as she passed and guided his shoulders back. "You don't have much muscle so you're better off slashing rather than stabbing straight on" she whispered quietly and moved to correct Luna and Cho as they attempted the same things.

Regulus tried and tried whirling the sword around he brought it down heavily on one of the dummies, the sharp blade sank into the sack and he grinned watching the insides spilling out. He was doing better but he needed more practise, he wasn't doing as badly as some of the other people were.

When the lunch hour arrived it didn't seem to last as long as before.

"And how is my baby cousin doing today?" Bellatrix whispered almost venomously to Regulus as she sank down in the empty seat beside him. He didn't even need to ask to know she was still angry with what he pulled at his interview.

"Just fine thank you, yourself?" he asked as calmly as possible but on the inside he was shaking.

Bellatrix simply smiled at him a little too nicely. "That was quite a stunt you pulled on Sunday" she began. "Very Slytherin actually…."

Regulus said nothing he knew better than to poke the bear with a stick.

She smiled at him her eyes glittering somewhat before she got up and left him in peace.

….

By Wednesday people were starting to relax and Regulus had noticed the improvement in their skills and he could feel the tension somewhat when someone did especially well; Ginny and her bow, Cedric and his trident, James and his Axe, Hannah and her knives, Cho and her camouflage, Rita and her plant skills, Bellatrix and her brutality.

Regulus on the other hand had very little, this terrified him but there were others who didn't seem to be doing so well but then again people he had underestimated before such as Susan, Peter and Gilderoy were beginning to excel at things and they had not proven their work on humans or their stealth or how fear would react to them in the arena.

On Sunday there would be the announcement after their tests, they would train until Saturday and on Sunday they would be allowed to warm up and then they would go in one by one to show the trainers what they could do for their scores to be published. This would provide potential sponsors, family members and even other tributes an insight to their chances in the games, who would be better, who had the best chance of survival and who did not. The scores would range from one to twelve, one as the lowest and twelve the highest and Regulus hoped to hell he would get at least a five.

It was true that people with low scores won the games however people with very high scores normally did win and they were usually the ones with natural talent, the bigger, stronger ones who could handle the pressure and had less to fear about in the arena rather than the skinny little tiny ones that could hardly hold their bow straight.

Regulus knew he was going to die, he just knew it.

During training that afternoon he went back to the knife throwing station, he threw and he hit pretty much all of them, his third attempt and he hit square in the centre, it wasn't so much accuracy he was working on it was his speed for throwing, if he was faced off against someone he couldn't stop to plant his feet correctly, he couldn't stop to get his angle right or squint to make sure it would hit, he would have to throw quickly and make sure it at least left a mark if not kill someone.

For his last station he went to learn to make a fire. He was wary of doing so knowing that people who made fires were easier to find thanks to the smoke and the brightness of the flames, they could also be easier to track down later on….

….

Thursday arrived and they started training later, today they would have a session with the other person from their District and then a private session with a personal trainer. Regulus was definitely not looking forward to being in with Bellatrix, they were polar opposites.

As he entered the training centre, the high ceilings which seemed to fade into nothing, the wide, enormous spaces, heavy stone walls, the sections set up with magical fields protecting weapons from being thrown out of control. There were less guards today, only five of them with Regulus, Bella and the two trainers but it was more than enough.

"I'm glad you're both here" the young woman said carefully. "I'm going to skip the feelings talk and individual advice until you're in here with me alone later on" she said looking from one to the other and back again.

Regulus knew this was so the other tribute did not find out what your weakness was or so you wouldn't appear softer in front of them.

"Why don't we take each station at a time and you can show me your skills" she began with a smile leading them over to archery.

Regulus was delighted as he watched Bella lift the bow confidently but she shot and she missed the first target, the second one was higher, her lips pursed and her dark eyes flashed with anger as she shot again and it hit the target so hard it came crashing down.

"Well done!" the trainer said clapping her hands eagerly watching Bellatrix hit a target from a much further distance, her knees were bent and her teeth bared in anger.

Regulus winced at the snarl that left her lips when she missed and shot again this time hitting it. She wasn't great but she was competent.

"Now it's your turn, Regulus" she said gently as she prised the bow from Bellatrix and handed it to the boy.

Regulus swallowed as his cousin stepped aside watching him very closely and with the faintest shred of amusement on her face as he stepped onto the red cross on the floor and aimed at the wooden target shaped like a sheep. Carefully his eyes narrowed and he released the string, the arrow shot across and hit the sheep square where its painted eye was. Regulus felt thrilled. He shot again and hit the next target from a distance but his third and fourth arrows missed, he shot up high and hit the target but it wasn't nearly as hard as Bellatrix'. He wasn't like Bella, he was possibly a little better than her but he wasn't as strong or as passionate, he didn't feel the level of rage she obviously did when attacking something…. Or someone….

The strength section they didn't go too full out on not wanting to cause injury to themselves when there was only a few more days until they would be heading into the arena. Injured tributes did not last long especially on their first day when they had to run and escape.

They only went to a third section which was unfortunately with the tridents. Regulus' kept clattering to the floor resulting in Bellatrix being scolded for laughing at him. He was too short, even the shorter tridents were taller than he was and throwing them from so low down with shorter arms and weaker muscles he just could not get them to go very far.

"That's your double training done for today, Bellatrix would you like to stay on first and Regulus can go outside to wait for his training session" the women asked her eyes flickering to Regulus.

"Thank you" he said simply before he turned and left the room with a guard by his side. He was taken to a spare room filled with cushy chairs and books to read. Slumping into a seat by the window he picked one up on how to purify water so it was drinkable and made mental notes on it carefully.

Meanwhile in the common room….

"It's sad we're going to part in here…." Lily said quietly as she and Severus sat together pouring over books.

Severus pursed his thing lips. "I wish you wouldn't talk like that, you have as much chance of winning as anyone else in here"

"Yes, I do" said Lily. "And so do you" her green eyes searched his black ones. "Are chances are both one in twenty four, that's not excellent but someone has to win this and I would rather it was you than me" she said quietly.

"Why?" Severus' voice cracked but he quickly cleared his throat to sort it.

"I don't want to leave here without my best friend" Lily said honestly.

"What about Potter?" Severus' eyes suddenly turned cold. "After what you said about him at the interview I assumed he was your new best friend"

"Don't be silly, Sev!" Lily's cheeks turned as red as her hair. "He's an arrogant little toe-rag but I don't want him to die, I don't want anyone to die" she said glancing around the room. "We shouldn't be pitted against one another"

Severus sighed so softly Lily completely missed it. "There's nothing we can do it's just how the world works…."

"Sadly it is" she said quietly. "But Severus, will you be my ally in the arena?" her voice was low and soft as she took his hand.

Severus felt himself grow weak at the knees. Lily wanted to be his ally, she was holding his hand, those beautiful green eyes…. "Yes, I will be your ally" he smiled gently. It was a death promise, one of them had to die if not both of them but Severus was certain he was going to keep this girl alive as best he could.

….

"Regulus Black?"

It had been about an hour or so when Regulus was called up for his private session. He put his book down and got up quickly smiling nervously at the guard calling to him. The man was wearing long, sky blue robes and guided Regulus back into the training room.

Bellatrix was more than gone and the room had been cleaned up ready for his use.

"Good afternoon" Myra smiled gently sipping at her coffee. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked offering a tray of general water and other such juices to him.

"No thank you" Regulus shook his head nervously.

"Okay, well today is your personal training day, we're going to go through your strengths and weaknesses, so what do you personally feel is your best?" she asked calmly searching his face.

Regulus hesitated a moment. "I think I did best with the knife throwing" he said quietly. "I'm not overly good at anything but I can hit"

Myra smiled. "Let's go and have a look, people have been observing you to see what you can do" she went on turning over a few leafs on her clipboard. "They do feel you are best with the knives and you should be best with close combat with a knife, distance you have trouble with and strength you have a problem with but your speed is very good so they are the things we are going to fine tune this week" she went on as Regulus ran his fingers over the handles on the blades.

She stood watching closely as Regulus picked up a blade turning it over in his hands. He let out a quick breath and whirled around launching it hard against the wooden target. It struck, not perfectly but it was a definite hit on the outline of the human figure. He threw a second one at a much smaller target, the one higher up, one further, one low down and he hit all of them, not always perfectly but not bad either.

"Very good" Myra grinned clapping at him and jotting it down. "Your accuracy is not perfect but it is improving, from the score of three you got as a general marking on your original test just for this sector, you are now a seven which is a big improvement.

Regulus flashed her an excited grin. "How can I refine my technique?"

Myra smiled and took Regulus' shoulders. "Square off, keep your body relaxed if you are tense and try to throw tense you won't have the power of being relaxed and then turning pushing the strength into your muscles" she explained. "Now try" she pointed to the target.

Regulus turned off and relaxed grabbing a knife he turned and slammed it into the abdomen of the dummy a good twelve feet away.

"Well done, Regulus!" the woman beamed applauding him. "Keep going"

Regulus threw and threw and threw again. After half an hour he was allowed a five minutes break whilst he got a drink and Myra made some more notes. He was then moved on to close combat with the knives.

"And jump!"

Regulus jumped and brought the knives down into the chests of a dummy, he whirled around and kicked one from its stand driving the knife into its chest twisting it and ripping it out with a snarl that did not sound like his own. He turned and slammed it into another and then turned to run on the course.

"Keep going, work it!" Myra shouted as Regulus slashed every target out of the way.

Regulus didn't stop until he was soaked in sweat, red in the face and growing tired from effort.

"That was a really good job today, have you been studying plants, herbs, wound care and camouflage too?" she asked gently.

"Yeah, absolutely" he nodded quickly. That was actually probably the most concerning thing because even if he did make it some way into the games he would have to feed himself, drink and deal with things he needed to.

"Right, you'll continue as normal with your training for two more days and then on Sunday will be your scored assessment, choose your strongest link which is your knives, do whatever you can, pretend it's a dance routine, make it flawless" she smiled.

Regulus nodded quickly.

"You're dismissed"

Regulus left the training arena feeling more nervous than ever before….

….


	4. Chapter 4 Official Scoring

"Sirius, calm down" Remus breathed as he and Sirius sat in the Gryffindor dormitory back at the castle. "I know how hard it is to see a loved one- two loved ones- in training to go into the arena but this amount of stress isn't doing anyone any good" he swallowed the lump that appeared in his throat. Anyone that had blood relatives in the arena was allowed to watch in privacy, anyone with friends and such had to watch together unless someone in their personal dormitory had access to a banner screen to watch on.

Tonks, she was going into the arena along with twenty three other people he knew, many of them he cared about, all of them he was civil with apart from Bellatrix, he still tried though.

"But I've got two brothers in that arena, James and Regulus, blood and brotherhood, I will lose one of them if not both…. I just…. I just can't…." Sirius choked out as his silver eyes focused on the screen along with everyone else.

It was a pretty relaxed environment to watch The Games, a subject so deadly serious (literally) they needed privacy to watch and have their own time to sit and deal with this. The strain, even the Ministry understood took a massive toll on the families and friends of tributes every year.

Remus smiled weakly and put his arms around Sirius. "I miss them all too, someone of those twenty four tributes will win and we can only hope it's one of ours"

"This is going to sound terrible" Sirius sniffled slightly. "But I am hoping for my brother to win, Regulus that is…." He breathed massaging his temples with his fingers as they listened to the comments Caesar was making over the tributes as what trainers have said about their training sessions.

"It doesn't sound terrible" Remus breathed as Sirius put a friendly arm around him. "I get it, we've got loved ones in the arena, they are going to fight and not everyone is going to come out, only one can win"

Sirius began shaking further.

"Regulus did so well at his interviews" Remus said reassuringly. "He showed your cousin up, he was funny and he was really cute"

Sirius let out a stressed chuckle relieving some of the building steam pressure inside of him. "He was and whether or not that is enough to get sponsors alone, I don't know, but I will do everything I can to find someone willing to put money into him…." He breathed.

Remus smiled nervously. "Oh, look!" he pointed to the screen.

Regulus' comments were being made.

"Yes, Regulus Black from District Two isn't the strongest of competitors, his physical strength isn't excellent nor is his size he is carrying the disadvantage of having a pure-blood lifestyle and being pampered from being a tiny baby" Caesar commented. "He is quick, light on his feet and his aim is good" he added with a smile. "So what do you make of him, Myra?" he asked turning to the woman whom had changed into bright pink robes and sat with her hair curled heavily and very dark eye makeup on.

"He's a very sweet little boy" she smiled.

Sirius was still shaking and Remus swallowed hard.

"It's her job to drop in her personal views and good things about each tribute" Remus said quickly. "I think she's playing on his looks"

"She is, he's tiny and adorable, he's only five feet tall and he's skinny and looks so innocent so if she plays on that people might think he's adorable and sponsor him because they don't want someone his age to die" Sirius choked out.

"And how do you think he will react in the arena?" Caesar asked grinning and flashing his white teeth to her. It was all so falsely annoying it made Sirius feel sick. They were getting twisted pleasure from this, from watching children kill each other in The Games.

"I think Regulus will cope in his own way" she said slowly. "He's clever, he's witty and he tries, you can't fault a boy of his age for trying as hard as Regulus does, he is making the effort just like all the others older and younger than him" she explained.

"Good, it's nice to hear that but how about his chances? Can he stand up with the hardest of contenders?"

Sirius' breath caught in his throat.

"He can stand up for himself, he tries and he wants to push himself just like everybody else, I won't say much else" he smiled simply. "But I will say that Regulus Black is not the weakest link in our tribute chain" she added with a wink.

They listened to the applause of the crowd and Sirius sighed heavily, Remus clapped slightly relieved that there was some good.

"And that is District Two covered today, the next time we'll hear of each tribute that way will be when the scores are released on Sunday and we will afterwards present clips on their individual assessed training" Caesar grinned. "Now, onto District 3!"

Myra grinned and applauded brightly with the rest of them, the camera-ready smile on her face made Sirius want to punch their screen.

The two boys sat hugging watching more calmly as the Districts ran through to five.

"Yes I think Severus is a cunning boy, he's intelligent and he knows what he's doing but at the same time he keeps tight-lipped about his views so I think we'll just have to wait to see what he's like in the scoring before we can say much more" she said lightly.

"Oh so we have a little mystery in District 5" Caesar chuckled winking at the camera. "Things just got a little more interesting"

Sirius sighed. "I don't give a crap about Snape, I hope James or Reg or even Tonks kill him before he gets any further"

"You don't wish death on anyone" Remus said calmly. "That's not right, not even in The Hunger Games" he swallowed nervously.

"I know it isn't but I'd rather see him dead than my friend or my brothers or my second cousin" he said quietly.

They sat watching six, seven and when eight came up Rita was talked about.

"Another elusive one" Myra chuckled. "She's very crafty, she has sharp eyes, she knows what she's talking about and I think she's full of tricks"

"Interesting, so now let's move on to James Potter, her District partner" Caesar grinned excitedly. "What is the deal with this young man?"

Each time a tribute was mentioned a picture from their school file was blown onto the background of the screen behind them just to keep it in everyone's mind who was who.

"James is a strong boy, physically and emotionally" Myra commented crossing her legs under the table. "He's smart and he knows how to deal with things and he does them to the best of his ability, that's all I'm going to say" he finished with a smile.

"Do you think he could be a threat?"

"I think all of them could be a threat in their own way, physically James is in good condition" Myra smiled again.

District 9's comments weren't bad either and in 10 Cho's comments were nice, Peter wasn't as well talked up as some of the other's but she couldn't make him look bad, he seemed kind of flat.

Sirius was sure people would not sponsor the boy but you could never tell….

"And what about Miss Pansy Parkinson of District Eleven?" Caesar asked curiously.

"I feel the fire in her, she wants this, she's strong and she really is in love with her District partner" Myra smiled gently. "It's sad but she's a tough girl, she can handle this and I know she's prepared"

"Excellent and what about her partner, her love?" Caesar pushed further.

"Draco is tactical, he will do what he has to, he knows how to keep his head straight and he has strong morals" Myra commented. "He's a good person and I think he will be okay in the arena"

"Excellent, so now we move on to District 12" he grinned to the camera again. "Nymphadora Tonks" he said quickly and the image of the girl with the heart face and the short, bright pink hair and a bright grin on her pretty face.

Remus gave a shudder and gazed longingly at the screen. Sirius held him tighter knowing this was a sore moment for someone like Remus, a Werewolf to find love from someone who could potentially be murdered in the arena by a classmate was stressful as he may never find it again and he cared for her deeply despite not wanting to hurt her.

"Nymphadora is a very unique girl, she's funny, she's witty and she's quick, she tries and she's strong physically and emotionally, she's a great tribute, she's a good example of a teenager and a tribute too" the woman nodded slowly. "I think she can hold up well in the arena to be honest"

"Excellent, that's good news to hear for her District, family and friends" he winked to the screen. "But what about her partner, Theodore Nott?"

"Theodore is a very clever boy, he's quick, he's tall and he's also very elusive, I get the impression he has a his own little game plan for the arena and it will be pretty interesting with what he comes up with" she smiled knowingly her eyes twinkling slightly.

"And that is our twenty four contenders, who is your favourite?" Caesar grinned to the camera. "Thank you, Myra for helping mentor our tributes this year" he said to her again. "On Sunday we will have more information on how well we suspect the tributes to do, their scores will appear live and on Monday morning they will finally enter the arena and we'll soon put their talents and tasks to the test" he smiled gently.

Sirius sat with his head in his hands for a few moments. "I'm scared for him, I'm scared for all of them" he breathed.

Remus rested his chin against the top of Sirius' head. He knew how stressed the boy was, he could feel it. "So am I, Sirius, so am I…." he breathed closing his eyes slowly.

….

On Friday morning Regulus was down at the dining room. They had all been given the same uniforms today but with different colour panels. Today each tribute wore black combat trousers and a navy polo-shirt, Regulus' had golden panels down the sides along with a golden Ministry symbol and a golden number two emblazoned on the front of him.

They were having their pictures taken this morning, privately one at a time, they would pose with their weapon of choice and these would be published for the people back home to see.

Regulus wasn't entirely sure how his family would react to seeing him holding such a deadly weapon but he also wanted to make it a good one to try and reassure them he could handle this, to put their minds and hearts at ease knowing he was actually going to try his best to fight for this, to fight for himself and fight for them.

Nobody spoke at breakfast but people looked to one another sometimes aggressively. Whether it was preparation for the shoot or whether it was because they were all going into the arena in only three days now and the pressure was on.

They were all allowed into the training room and called out one by one in District order.

Gilderoy went in proudly and came back twenty minutes later beaming flashing his white teeth. His hair had been sprayed into perfection, his navy polo-shirt with silver panels set off his eyes making them pop and he did look handsome but oh so charmingly annoying. Umbridge went next in the same outfit, her hair in extreme ringlet curls. Bellatrix went third, her hair shaken sexily out of its band and when Regulus was called he felt really nervous.

"Hello" the young male photographer smiled to him very warmly when he walked in the room, the guards shut the door and Regulus hesitated smiling shyly.

"There's no need to look so nervous" he laughed lightly sitting himself down on a small wooden stool.

Regulus looked up, there was a backdrop of the Ministry symbol and the number Two with more intricate designs around it faintly. The ground was all stone and there was a chair to sit or stand on if you liked.

Sitting off to the side was a large rack of arrows, a bow hanging up, a table of knives, swords and various other things.

"Just shake our your nerves" the man smiled warmly turning to face the boy and shaking his arms out still sitting down almost making Regulus laughed. "Shake them all out, pick your weapon, take your time and then we'll do a few tester shots first so you get comfortable" he nodded.

Regulus swallowed and did actually shake out his arms and legs, he was still shaking his hands as he made his way over to the table. His eyes roamed over the different variations of throwing knives.

Someone had obviously been here to tidy up and clean things over putting them back immaculately. Regulus looked from the completely silver throwing knives to the knives with thick handles, the ones with much bigger curves and the ones with designs on them. He reached out and selected a knife with a very thick blade, curved but not too much with nice, cushioned black handles. He selected a second knife the same and made his way over in front of the camera.

"Okay, just stand and let me get a headshot" the photographer smiled getting up and holding the camera up.

Regulus didn't move, it flashed and he breathed a nervous sigh of relief.

"Okay, I know you're only fourteen, I know you're very little and you are being made very cutesy and that's fine but it becomes emotional when someone that looks like you holds such a dangerous weapon" the photographer explained.

Regulus nodded slowly and swallowed. This was beginning to feel so real, it was beginning to not feel like a game.

"Some of the tributes will go for what they have been portrayed as like tough, aggressive, elusive, scary, mean, technical, agile and you are very cute so they play that up and I want you to be you, don't force anything because I've seen so many tributes come in this room for their shoots and force anger, force being tough and look overly fake and posed, it doesn't win sponsors, if they achieve a look by accident you can see it, ones without one pose normally and seriously so do what comes naturally to you" the photographer explained with a gentle smile.

Regulus smiled and nodded again as the photographer leaned into his camera.

Regulus held up the knife and looked straight down the lens holding it back as though he were about to throw it but keeping the blade fully in view.

Snap.

Regulus moved and tilted his face towards the blade his eyes focused down the camera.

Snap.

Regulus moved fingering the blade his hands curled around it tightly trying to look as calm as possible.

Snap.

About ten more shots later and the camera was finally put down.

"Okay, could you do one more and get both knives in shot?" the man grinned and Regulus nodded quickly. He shifted and posed holding the knives crossed fiercely around his collarbone, his eyes were wide and the flash went off.

"Perfect, we've got some really great shots of you" the man smiled gently.

Regulus moved over and placed the knives back exactly where he found them and shook hands with the photographer. "Thank you for being kind to me" he said quietly.

"My pleasure and best of luck with the games" the man smiled looking genuinely surprised at how nice Regulus was being. When the boy left the room he swallowed, when they were sweet it was all the more difficult to watch them die.

….

Back in the training room, Regulus walked in looking as calm as he made himself and went straight to the training station of physical combat. They were doing a demonstration on basic self-defence which would be a great advantage if they could not pick up any weapons in the Cornucopia. There were tributes that ran from the bloodbath with nothing in hand, some died, some got further into the games, one year someone won because you could acquire things throughout the games if you found some or hung around when someone was killed and could disguise yourself but Regulus would rather at least have something to start off with.

The hour before lunch he went to the knife throwing station, people were busy so he tossed his knives quickly, he wasn't going to make them off on purpose and they were getting better but thankfully not many people were watching him because Ginny was on archery again and Cedric was with his trident.

During lunch people were talking about the shoot.

"He was a really nice photographer" Regulus heard Tonks commenting. "Fit too" she laughed.

"You have a boyfriend though" Nott commented. "Don't you think that's a terrible thing to say right before you go into the arena?"

"Who's to say I'll die though" Tonks blinked. "Who's to say I'm not going to win and see him again"

"You realise all of this is on film right now, right?" Cho commented. "It's probably best not to fight"

"We're going into the arena, dipshit" Zacharias commented rolling his eyes. "What does a bit of fighting matter when we're going to kill each other in a few days?"

"Doesn't mean we should be awful to each other now" Wood interjected.

Regulus and Severus exchanged looks sighing to one another. Tension was common to build before they went into the arena, the tension stressed people out and stress made people panic and do crazy things even the most unlikely of people could do something extremely dangerous and hack their best friend apart for no reason straight away.

A few of the tributes shot sideways glances to him as though they were trying to judge how strong he would be, how worthy he would be.

"Looks like people are starting to form allies" Severus breathed.

"I know" Regulus swallowed.

"I overheard Potter and Diggory making a sort of pact earlier on" Severus breathed. "Here's a hint, watch out for Pansy too" he shot Regulus a warning look.

Regulus swallowed and nodded. "I haven't heard anything I've been keeping to myself so I have no comments to make" he said quietly watching a few of the people down the other end of the table bickering, the guards had their wands pointed to the children ready to break them up from fighting if anything should start again.

After lunch and some more reading work, Regulus went in to learn about herbal healing. It was fascinating.

"Nobody will know what is going to be in that arena" the trainer, Elijah, said. "Nobody knows what the layout is going to look like, how big it will be, what conditions will be like but what we do know is there are going to be plants, there are every year, a drastic variety of them, some toxic, some safe so you have to work hard to make sure you know how to heal yourself if you should get injured, the same as you need to know how to identify food, if you can't do plants you have to be able to hunt, you've got to feed yourselves in there"

After the medical hour, Regulus moved over to the station for climbing. He wasn't very strong and didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of people but he had to get stronger for this, he had to learn more technique to climb, he needed to be able to get out of reach if anything should happen.

By the end of the day he was tired but not too bad, he took a hot bubble bath and was left with his thoughts.

"I have learned so much these past few days" he breathed. Sure, he still cried at night, he missed his family and it seemed a lifetime since he had been sleeping in his bed back at the castle, cuddled up dreaming of someone else's name being pulled at the reaping and getting through his school career normally without problems, once he passed the school year at eighteen he would be safe for good just the same as if he won The Games, he would be safe forever just like every other victor in the Wizarding world.

….

James Potter sat on the edge of his bed rubbing cream into his hands making sure they wouldn't blister after lifting the heavy weight of the axe, the wood rubbing against his bare hands but they were doing fine and he was preparing himself.

No more Mr nice guy, no more gentle James, no more playing Quidditch, this was serious and brutal and he HAD to step his game up. He didn't want ANYONE seeing him as a weak threat.

"I didn't come here with the intention of losing, of coming second, first place or death and I choose to be number one" he said slowly.

….

"I'll get them…." Susan muttered in her sleep. "I won't be last in The Games..." she slurred sleepily.

….

"Hello, handsome" Gilderoy grinned to himself in the mirror. "There's not one person going to damage this gorgeous face" he said patting cream onto his cheeks. They were allowed bathing and face products of course and he was going to go in with as much on as possible so he looked his best in the biggest moment of his life.

"The Games are a stage and I intend to shine in them" he grinned to himself putting his rollers into his hair. "I will take out a few of the weaklings while I'm at it" he smirked to his own reflection.

….

"Ally, I have an Ally" Katie Bell spoke softly as he paced up and down her room. "I am safe, I have someone to help protect me from the moment we go in there, I have a friend, I am strong" she breathed. "I am strong" she swallowed.

….

George sat on his bed gazing out of the window over the streets of London. It was terrifying and he was alone. George Weasley was never alone, he had always been with his twin brother whom would probably be in ruins already.

He wanted to be with Fred, he wanted to be at home with his family, he wanted to pull Ginny from the arena and he would protect her as best he could and she would protect him, they hadn't said anything about an alliance but surely blood would bind them that way to begin with.

….

On Saturday morning Regulus was woken by the tolling of the bell at ten in the morning. They were given two extra hours to sleep in and get some rest, they would also be put to bed early tonight and tomorrow night too so they were well-rested to go into the arena on Monday morning.

After dressing in his usual clothing, he made his way down with everyone else in two straight lines accompanied by the guards.

Down at the breakfast table people were tense and anxious and nobody spoke. It was their last day of training and tomorrow they would only have a brief chance before their scoring would take place.

Regulus could only hope for a good mark, he'd already planned to go with the knives, he would throw, he would run and he would slice and he would be adorable at the same time.

He glanced down he table where his cousin was eating large amounts of food, many of them were packing it in and a few had gained a small amount of weight, it was a good idea before they went into the arena in case they were left with nothing it would help with their energy and give them something to burn rather than nothing and even a fraction more was something.

After breakfast they went into the training rooms, Regulus went for the plants section and he planned to go back there this afternoon if he could, he had to be fresh. He watched as Severus threw a spear a decent way across and hit the bottom of a target, it wasn't great but it was better than what he could do for sure. He was working with Cho whom just so happened to strike the target full on each time, she was competent with a spear and Regulus made a note of that.

Malfoy was busy with his knotting, tying intricate nets and traps, Regulus was interested and although it didn't seem like much, if you could snare a human in one of those you could kill them and leave before any allies showed up to help provided it all went to plan. Pansy was working on her archery, she was actually quite good.

After his round with the technology station that showed basic Muggle technology, how to use wire and such which they may or may not need (Regulus felt it wasn't too important) and he got to move on to the camo station one last time, this was important but there were more important things to choose from than this to be honest, well, in his world there were….

At lunch, Regulus ate as much as he possibly could before sitting back and relaxing in the common room, a few other people were doing the same but some more of the anxious people were busy reading books and practising their defence like Lily, Wood, Peter and Hannah.

Katie was pacing closing her eyes and whispering things to herself going over it in her head.

Potter was sitting alone with his back to everyone.

It was a very stressful time for anyone especially a bunch of teens and pre-teens going into a fight for survival and to the very end.

Back in the training arena, Regulus went to the knife throwing station, he did his best, he trained hard but was careful to watch his muscles. He wanted to be good for tomorrow and he wanted to conserve his energy so he decided to skip the combat section and went for archery afterwards instead.

Pansy was good at shooting, very good now actually she was hitting the target every single time and she was doing it at a reasonable speed, still not as good as Ginny but it was something.

Seamus was doing something unusual at the techno station and Umbridge was busy training with a sword, the instructor carefully correcting the mistakes she made.

When the time finally came, Regulus hurried to the plants station one last time and worked himself silly. He could hear people whispering around him, he could see their looks to each other (not about him) but people were judging each other, people were forming their alliances, people were picking others off and working out their strengths and weaknesses and it might have been utterly terrifying but it was a good strategy nonetheless.

By the time Regulus was allowed to collapse into bed that night the pressure was on.

No training tomorrow.

No training but they would be doing their scores and their scores would be published for not just the people back home to see but also the other contestants, people that would be trying to kill them would learn their anticipated threat level, the higher the better in some cases but if you do get between a ten to twelve people may try to kill you first. There are so many possible ways at looking at everything and Regulus was thinking about each and every one, it wasn't healthy but he had to do it to be sure he was getting what he needed. He needed to win but he knew his chances were not great.

With those thoughts in mind, Regulus drifted off to sleep.

….

When he was woken about ten am the next morning by the dull tolling of the bell, Regulus felt tired, he felt miserable and the nerves had kicked in the second he opened his eyes. He felt sick with anticipation. Today they would warm up and then go in one by one when they were called for their performances to the trainers whom would award them with an assessed result of how well they thought they were going to do in the games, what their chances were.

He swallowed and pulled on the fresh uniform the same as yesterday noticing it was still warm and crisp, someone must have charmed it.

He washed, went to the toilet and headed off quickly with the guards down to the dining room. Regulus wasn't actually very hungry but he made himself eat, he had to pack in plenty now so he wasn't starving in the arena.

Nobody was talking, people were on edge, the atmosphere in the room was filled with pressure, anything could set people off and they had gone wild before even getting to the arena before.

Regulus glanced up slowly at Severus whom was pale in the face, his hair as lank and greasy as ever. They exchanged smiles.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" a male voice shouted from down the other end of the table.

Chairs were thrown back as Diggory and Potter made to launch at one another, their teeth bared and chests heaving with anger.

The guards came running forward and shot stunning spells at both of them, they collapsed back into the floor in crumpled heaps and were apprehended immediately to calm them down.

Regulus wasted no more time in finishing his food, downing his drink and headed off to the common room to wait.

And wait he did.

When everyone arrived they sat about reading, pacing and trying not to look each other in the eye. Tomorrow was it, tomorrow was the day they had less than twenty four hours until they would be in The Games themselves battling it out to be crowned the victor and be safe forever.

Regulus glanced around the room, someone here would be first to die, to come in twenty fourth place, then twenty third and so on. Just how many people would die in the bloodbath? How many would survive the first night? He swallowed the hard lump that appeared in his throat, even some of these kids had Muggle relatives or went to Quidditch matches where they had to camp out or be outdoors, he had lived a very sheltered life in a large house with his brother, parents and a house elf as a servant. He had no idea about surviving in the wilderness even if it was in an arena.

The arena…. Nobody would know what layout it would have, what conditions, what plants, what it would even look like until tomorrow morning when they were thrown into it. Nobody would have a clue of the dangerous, they wouldn't know whether there would be anything living in there like dangerous animals, anything poisoning, traps and such. Only the Game makers would know but all would be revealed tomorrow.

Regulus swallowed the lump that appeared in his throat, he watched Lockhart return then Umbridge was called a few minutes later to go into the assessment room which was different to the training room.

Time ticked past and Bellatrix went and she seemed the most eager out of all the tributes, she was desperate to get in that room and people shot her sideways looks behind her back knowing that if they did it to her face she would probably hunt them down first.

When she eventually returned, Regulus' heart was hammering in his chest. Several minutes passed before he was called upon and left the room trying to keep himself as calm and cool as possible.

He was taken by one of the unnamed guards down the corridor and down two flights in the lift, the wall torches were burning brightly as the sky was overcast outside and raining it made Regulus feel like it was getting dark at only half eleven in the morning.

The guard did not speak to him the whole way there, nor did he appear to want to speak to Regulus. They stopped outside the training room and the man rested his wand down on some sort of scale, a few seconds passed and the doors opened and he removed the wand leading Regulus inside with him. The doors slammed shut behind them.

Regulus swallowed the nerves, he had to deal with this, he was trembling as he took several deep calming breaths and made his way into the centre of the room. There was a balcony, a sort of stand where the judges were waiting and watching. Myra was amongst them and so was the Minister but the actual judges themselves were more like game makers and the trainers.

"Regulus Black" he choked out wincing at his crackling voice. "District 2"

"Very well" said one of the trainers he had noticed around the edges of the training room during practice sessions. "You may begin"

Regulus swallowed and went for the throwing knives, he knew they were his best shot, he had to make an impression, he didn't want to come off as a weak link.

They watched closely as the targets appeared and Regulus moved to the centre of the room keeping his head down, he turned his back to them and exhaled slowly before he whirled around suddenly and struck a target directly in the chest.

He didn't stop to revel in the surprise the game makers were clearly showing as he threw the next one and it struck the shoulder, third in the kneecap, fourth in the abdomen, fifth in the face. The sixth missed by a mile but he went rushing forward hearing someone cast a spell and targets came haring towards him.

Regulus cried out in surprise and stumbled back falling to the ground his hands flying up to his face.

Poof they were goon and motionless again.

Regulus leapt to his feet his cheeks beating heavily with blood hearing them all laughing at him, he slashed the targets trying to snarl viciously like his cousin or some of the bigger, better, stronger tributes but they came out more like helpless little kitten cries.

Regulus whirled around helplessly and threw his knife, it hit a target on the wall, the second one fell short and clattered to the floor.

With his face filled with shame, his eyes glistening with tears he looked to the trainers and left the room in silence biting back his hurt.

They laughed, they all laughed at him.

When he'd gathered himself and arrived back in the common room, he sat down and buried his face in a book. He'd briefly thought about asking to be sent to his room for private time but if he did that the others would know he didn't do very well in his assessment and they might even try to pick him off immediately if they didn't have plans to do so already.

He watched the other tributes come and go, each with that firm look on their face when they returned, some showed upset, some were fine and Regulus knew how they felt especially if they did badly. He'd started out quite well he rather thought but he'd blown it.

The common room was deathly silent throughout the entire assessment time, nobody wanted to talk about anything especially not what they were about to face but afterwards they started moving around, wooden chairs scraped the floor at the desks, people sat about the fire warming their hands, people sat on the cushy red sofas and chatted idly about homework they had or had not completed his year. It didn't seem right the way they were talked, it was nerves and it sounded to Regulus just like they were trying to keep things as calm and normal as possible like they were all going to be sent home tomorrow and go back to school. But no, some of the people in this room would die tomorrow morning…..

….

At dinner that evening nobody wanted to speak.

"Tomorrow you will all be going into the arena" Myra sat standing at the top end of the table as they ate. "None of you will know what to expect, even I don't know what the arena itself will be like but tonight your scores will be published half an hour after dinner, you will be sent to your own private rooms for this" she explained her eyes scanning around. They were being sent privately to stop people forming instant allies or sneering at others that weren't as good, basically for their own protection and to make things more interesting tomorrow. "Our final feast as one" she went on raising a glass to them all.

Everybody shakily raised their glasses, Peter so badly his drink sloshed all over the table.

Nobody laughed.

Severus and Regulus caught eyes from where they were sitting opposite one another as they drank.

….

As soon as dinner was over they were sent back to their rooms, Regulus was sitting in the middle of his bed hugging one of the big, fat, cushy blue pillows to his body and gazing at the screen as Caesar's picture appeared smiling.

"And now it is time for the published announcements…." He began those gleaming white teeth seemed brighter than ever tonight. "With only fourteen hours until The Games officially begin, we are pleased to release the scores in District order from 1 to 12" he went on as he tapped the pile of photographs sitting in front of him.

"These scores are reflected upon what the judges have seen in their individual assessments earlier on today and represent their chances and likelihoods of surviving in The Games" he explained. "They are rated from 1-12 but do not see the assessments of one another, not just the people at home are watching this, the tributes themselves are watching at this very moment"

Regulus swallowed hard, he felt sick and shaky with fright.

"Each and every tribute will be assigned their number but their broadcast will be cut so they do not see each other's training clips which will be broadcast to the public only" Caesar went on.

There was a pause as he shifted the pile of photos towards him and grinned wickedly at the camera. "From District 1…. Dolores Umbridge with a score of 6"

The image flashed up on the screen with a picture of her holding a bow and arrows, tight in the string but she wasn't pointing it at anyone, it was a shot from the chest upwards and her eyes were fixated dangerously on the camera, her head to one side, her curls falling down a little bit and her lips pursed. She looked menacing.

Dolores Jane Umbridge: District 1.

Height: 5ft 1

Weight: 135lb

Age: 17

Score: 6

It paused for a good few seconds giving people a chance to read.

Regulus thought that six wasn't actually a bad score, it was halfway which mean she could go either way in this and could potentially be tough to judge. She most likely showed them something with her bow and arrows but Regulus wasn't sure they could have just been for show, she picked the prettiest weapon.

"Also from District 1, Gilderoy Lockhart with a score of…. 7"

Gilderoy Lockhart: District 1. (holding a bow and arrows, not loaded)

Height: 5ft 9

Weight: 128lb

Age: 17

"From District Two we have Miss Bellatrix Black!" Caesar grinned as her image flicked up. "With a score of…. 11"

….

Sirius groaned and put his head in his hands, everybody knew she would get a high score, for what they weren't sure but she could do most things and she was born to be a bloodthirsty killer and was a shoe in to win this years Games.

Remus rubbed his hand on Sirius' back trying to calm him down as they watched her picture appear on the bright screen.

Bellatrix Black: District 2. (holding her hands like bear claws and gritting her teeth dangerously, her eyes black and fierce)

Height: 5ft 9

Weight: 123lb

Age: 18

Score: 11

She was built for this too which only made it worse….

….

Regulus didn't flinch, he knew this was coming, he knew she would get a high score.

"And from District 2 we have our male tribute, Regulus Black" Caesar's voice rang through his ears and Regulus felt his entire body go numb, he froze watching the screen. "With a score of…. 3"

Regulus choked out a sob before the man had even finished talking.

Regulus Black: District 2. (They'd used the image of him looking innocent, adorable and with the throwing knives crossed in front of him)

Height: 5ft exactly.

Weight: 99lb

Age: 14

Score: 3

He was as good as dead….

….

Sirius broke down in sobs, screaming into his hands, shaking violently all over on the dormitory floor. His brother, his little baby brother was going into the arena with a fucking 3?!

"Shh, Sirius, people still win with low scores" Remus breathed trying to hold his friend up. "He might have just picked or been given the wrong weapon, nerves or something could have done it, sabotage?"

"It doesn't matter, they're all going to see him as pathetic and weak and I'm going to lose him!" Sirius cried harder and harder.

Remus' face was white with fear.

….

Luna Lovegood: District 3. (holding an arrow looking dreamy and curious)

Height: 5ft 3

Weight: 109lb

Age: 12

Score: 7

Seamus Finnigan: District 3 (holding some strange box)

Height: 5ft 7

Weight: 115lb

Age: 13

Score: 5

Susan Bones: District 4 (brandishing a knife)

Height: 5ft 4

Weight: 120lb

Age: 13

Score: 4

Cedric Diggory: District 4 (of course proudly holding his trident)

Height: 5ft 8

Weight: 126lb

Age: 17

Score: 9

Regulus was sitting shaking and rocking back and forth still reeling from his result, other people were getting reasonably low scores and he watched as Caesar called for District 5 to come up.

Lily Evans: District 5. (holding a bow)

Height: 5ft 3

Weight: 113lb

Age: 15

Score: 7

Severus Snape: District 5. (smirking nastily at the camera looking secretive)

Height: 5ft 7

Weight: 110lb

Age: 15

Score: 10

….

"Snape got a ten?!" Sirius cried staring at the screen. "What the hell?"

"He must have done something really good, Sirius" Remus said hoarsely. "He must have shown them something we didn't know he could do"

"I was expecting him to get maybe a six or seven at the most but not this" Sirius said in disbelief shaking his head.

"He's friends with you brother, maybe he will ally with him" Remus smiled reassuringly.

….

Regulus sniffled as he stared at the screen, Severus got a really good score, second highest so far, he felt somewhat happy for the boy.

Severus himself was sitting in his room, a smirk spreading nastily across his face….

Oliver Wood: District 6 (spear in the air above his head.

Height: 5ft 7

Weight: 118lb

Age: 17

Score: 7

Katie Bell: District 6. (holding a wooden staff)

Height: 5ft 5

Weight: 110lb

Age: 16

Score: 6

Ginevra Weasley: District 7 (holding a loaded bow)

Height: 5ft 3.5

Weight: 107lb

Age: 12

Score: 9

George Weasley: District 7 (posing with a sword)

Height: 5ft 10

Weight: 119lb

Age: 16

Score: 7

Rita Skeeter: District 8. (holding a scythe)

Height: 5ft 9

Weight: 120lb

Age: 16

Score: 6

James Potter: District 8. (axe slung over his shoulder)

Height: 5ft 8.5

Weight: 125lb

Age: 15

Score: 8

Sirius felt somewhat relieved to see his best friend had such a high score, it wasn't perfect but it was one of the best so far he would be reasonably okay. He knew James was a strong boy and Remus did too so they didn't doubt he wouldn't die on the first day….

Regulus knew a score like that was coming, James was tough and smart but perhaps a little limited in what he had displayed so far…. Unless that was the angle….

Hannah Abbott: District 9. (holding a knife)

Height: 5ft 6

Weight: 114lb

Age: 15

Score: 5

Zacharias Smith: District 9. (posing with a sword)

Height: 5ft 11

Weight: 134lb

Age: 13

Score: 6

Cho Chang: District 10. (holding a spear above her head)

Height: 5ft 7

Weight: 128lb

Age: 16

Score: 9

Peter Pettigrew: District 10. (just looking tough, arms folded and glaring at the screen)

Height: 5ft 3

Weight: 156lb

Age: 15

Score: 3

Regulus nearly broke down in sobs of relief, someone else got a score of three. Sure it was Pettigrew but he did have to wonder if Peter had a slight advantage with three inches and 57lb on Regulus but still….

Sirius and Remus exchanged looks, it was no more or less than they were expecting to be honest….

Pansy Parkinson: District 11. (holding throwing knives)

Height: 5ft 4.5

Weight: 123lb

Age: 13

Score: 6

Draco Malfoy: District 11. (holding a knife)

Height: 5ft 6

Weight: 116lb

Age: 13

Score: 5

Nymphadora Tonks: District 12. (with arrows on her back)

Height: 5ft 4

Weight: 113lb

Age: 14

Score: 9

….

Remus cheered with delight, Tonks had a good score, she had a good size, age and height so that meant her threat level was decent too. Sirius hugged his friend tighter, he wanted to be happy for Remus but he just couldn't muster it….

Regulus sniffed and nodded slowly. Okay, that was fair….

Theodore Nott: District 12. (picture holding a spear)

Height: 5ft 10.

Weight: 124lb

Age: 13

Score: 9

"And that, ladies and gentlemen concludes our scoring segment for this years Hunger Games!" Caesar cried out with delight making a strong fist. "Who is the winner if your books? Who do you want to sponsor? Sponsors may begin from tomorrow after the initial Cornucopia run" he explained. "All the feeds will not be cut from our tributes so to them I wish good luck and may the odd be _ever_ in your favour" she shot a knowing smile and nod down the camera lens before the feed was cut.

Regulus collapsed back onto his bed closing his eyes and shaking. This was terrible, really, truly terrible….

….

Back at school Sirius and Remus were crying and watching the clips; Susan identifying plants, Cedric throwing a trident and hitting the target then punching the air, James swinging an axe, Tonks and her spear, Ginny and her bow, Peter and his strength then finally, Regulus and his throwing knives.

"I hate seeing him holding those!" Sirius said his voice filled with hurt. "He's only fourteen!" he cried desperately. "He shouldn't be holding them, look at his little face, those big eyes and did you see his picture, Remus?!" he cried to his friend desperately.

Remus swallowed and nodded. "I saw it, Sirius, and it was sad"

The image of Regulus' innocent little pretty face appeared holding those deadly, dangerous weapons….

….

That night Regulus drifted off into a difficult slumber knowing that tomorrow morning he could be facing the challenge of his life.

He would be going into the arena….

….


	5. Chapter 5 The Cornucopia

It was a horrible sensation when that dull tolling of the bell drew Regulus up and forced him to surface from the deep, surprisingly wonderful dream he was having. In his head he was back home, with his family, he was at school in the Slytherin common room laughing with his friends, going to lessons, at the end of year feast, on the train going home to see his parents….

But then the harsh reality set in and Regulus knew he wasn't going to see any of those things…. Ever again along with twenty two other tributes, they would all die together for The Games….

Regulus sat up rubbing his tired eyes, slowly he looked up blinking around the room. There was a package on the bottom of the bed with a note attached, nervously, he picked it up.

_Regulus Black; _

_Today is your first (and hopefully not last) day in the arena, this will be your clothing items for your entire Games and everything you should require to wear, please put them on properly after taking a long, hot shower and wash yourself thoroughly and be ready by half past six. Best of luck for The Games and may the odds be ever in your favour. _

_Myra. _

Regulus felt sick to his stomach, he fought back the bile that was rising as he tore the note up in a sudden fit of rage. He felt dizzy, he felt sick. He whirled around clutching his head, the room was spinning and he was gasping for breath.

No.

Reality was hitting him harder than before, this was really happening…. It was really happening….

….

In the other rooms the tributes were rising like puppets on strings, corpses waking from the dead as they headed into the bathroom, pressed their feet to the floor, stretched or stared warily at their own parcels. All identical but they didn't know that yet.

….

Regulus spent a good twenty five minutes in the shower scrubbing his skin raw and sobbing into the hot, steamy water. He cared for nothing right now, maybe if he scrubbed hard enough he could erase himself, eliminate himself from The Games and into thin air where he could evaporate to a time where he was happy, where he was safe and everything was good.

As he rubbed his hair furiously with the rose-scented shampoo, he clenched his eyes shut. Memories were floating behind his closed lids; the first time he rode a broom, going to see a match with his mum and dad and brother, his Sorting Ceremony at Hogwarts, his friends laughing and joking, Christmas at the castle, Easter at home with his family…. The last time he ever saw them…. Being drawn from the reaping ball, his brother's screams as he was taken away.

It was too much for him, just too much but he knew there was no other way out. If he attempted to kill himself now they would notice and save him and he would be tossed into the arena injured and weak where he would be killed immediately by the dangerous tributes and allies in the bloodbath. He had the better option, to face everyone and go in there with a clear head and try to fight for his life. Yeah, that would be much more sensible by far.

Once he was out he used the wand they provided to dry off his hair, he attempted to do some other simple spells with it but it just crackled, apparently not good for anything else, typical….

He rubbed himself over all snuggled up in a white fluffy towel as he made his way back into his bedroom. Nervously, he pulled the strings and unwrapped the package.

Inside was his uniform, it was similar to the one during training however the material was different, it was incredibly soft and smooth but it was thicker, stronger. He pulled on a pair of supplied boxer shorts and thick, black, cable knit socks before tugging on his khaki brown combat trousers which hugged his figure perfectly. Maybe that was also why they were taking measurements to begin with, so they could match them perfectly to his tiny little frame. He put the belt on fastening it comfortably, not too tight or too loose and slipped his games polo-shirt on. Nervously he pulled on his leather military boots, they were surprisingly light but they had excellent grips on the bottom, good for running. He tied them on very tightly and shrugged on the hooded jacket they'd provided for him and turned to look at his own reflection in the mirror.

He felt terrified, he looked terrified, he was pale, his hair fell around his face, his eyes were big and wide and he looked so small and harmless, like a baby bunny rabbit being thrown into a pit full of vicious, starving tigers.

This was it, he sighed looking around the bedroom, at first he hadn't thought of it as a safe house, he had thought of it as an awful little hole that would be the stage before the end of his life but now he was seeing it as a comfort zone, somewhere better to stay.

Regulus was lost in his train of thought, everything he'd done over the past week had been building up to now, everything. It was so emotional but at the same time he had to remain strong to be able to go into that arena just like everyone else and fight, he had to not just for himself but for Sirius, his mother, father, friends and anyone out there who might be supporting him.

He had to try to win.

There was a knock at the door which startled Regulus, he jumped badly and staggered around regaining his balance before he made his way over and opened it.

"Breakfast begins in five minutes" the unknown guard spoke calmly, so smoothly it was like nothing was going on, his face was expressionless and Regulus swallowed. He nodded and with one glance back at his room for the final time, he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

People walked in silence, they stood in the lift tense and nervous staring straight ahead of them. Nobody spoke, nobody looked anyone else in the eye and nobody made any sudden movements out of fear of setting each other off.

Regulus followed his guard into the breakfast room and sat at the same old table, today didn't feel much different, it still felt like he was attending an endless funeral but he still felt like it was somewhat of a normal day, they would go to training and stuff but in reality that was not going to happen.

Severus sat down beside him and Ginny on the other side, they ate in perfect silence and the tension in the rom grew as the minutes ticked on.

Regulus wished he had someone to protect him, he was beginning to regret not forming an alliance with anyone but if he did he would have that looming fear of being murdered in his sleep hanging over him all the time. It was too late now anyway, it was silent and he couldn't form an alliance with anyone, even Severus without people hearing and then they would go straight after him, straight after both of them and he didn't want them going after Severus too.

When they'd finished eating their plates disappeared and seconds later small parcels appeared in front of them.

"These are your tribute gifts from home, a family member or loved one has sent you a small item or symbol to wear in the arena for comfort and to show your allegiance to home" Myra spoke softly. "You may unwrap them, each item has been carefully inspected so none can be used as a weapon and none are carrying poisons, explosives, magical enchantments etcetera"

Regulus carefully unwrapped his and inside was a tiny pin badge with the Gryffindor lion on and a simple note saying; _You can be a Gryffindor too – Love Sirius xx_

It took all the strength he had in his body not to cry at that very moment, slowly he pinned the little badge over his heart on his uniform and sniffed quietly, it appeared some of the other tributes were feeling the same thing with their patches, necklaces, rings, buttons, and other such things. It was emotional, nobody could deny that, it really was.

They were given fifteen minutes to cool off, calm down and admire their new tokens before they were taken into the corridor and in groups down to the bottom of the Ministry to await further instructions.

They had to wait in silence with the guards, hearts hammering in their chests as they stood in the wide lobby of the Ministry.

People were gathering to stare at the tributes, people had paid to come and see them and watch them be taken to the arena.

"Okay everyone, this is it, the final time we are all together as one" Myra swallowed. "I wish all of you the best of luck"

Nobody said anything.

"Each of you will step in a line and take your Port Key, it will take you to your small tribute, you will step in and when everyone is ready you will rise into the arena where you will wait for exactly one minute, as soon as the gong sounds you are free to move and begin The Games, if you step from your platform before the gong you will be hit with a killing curse effectively ending your life" she explained looking around seriously. "Is that clear to everyone?"

There was a murmur of agreement as people nodded and looking amongst each other like children deliberating something in a classroom.

"Very good" she smiled sweetly then looked around at each and every one of them sadly and sympathetically. "Best of luck to all of you in the arena and for The Games and may the odds be _ever_ in your favour" she nodded.

They swallowed and turned forming a line facing out, the crowd was watching curiously, even little children with their mouths hanging open as they all faced their assigned Port Keys.

"The keys will leave in five seconds, grab now" the Minister's voice rang out.

Hesitantly, Regulus grabbed his Port Key which was an empty, damaged water bottle (they were all things they could not take into the arena) and swallowed glancing around, everyone was holding their things.

Three….

Two….

One….

Regulus was ripped away from the Ministry in a flash, whirling, twisting and then-

Slump.

He hit the ground on his feet surprisingly enough and staggered a little letting go of his Port Key. When he regained his balance he took the chance to have a brief look around, it was a small, black underground room, the only light sources coming from the glowing tube, its singular door open ready for him to step inside. He knew this was it, he couldn't hang about too long.

Taking a nervous deep breath, he looked down at his badge "I can be Gryffindor too" he breathed before stepping inside.

The tube glowed brighter upon contact and the door slid back into place perfectly completely sealing him inside like the tube had never been open. Regulus had to suppress the urge to press his hands to the glass like a small child peering into a tank of fish at an aquarium.

There was a faint beeping sound that caught his attention, his breath caught in his throat and his eyes went wide. He stood with his feet apart, his hands flexing into fists and back by his sides as he swallowed deeply.

Gradually the beeping grew faster and faster, Regulus' pulse was racing, his palms sweating until the beep grew so fast and he felt the floor moving beneath his feet and he cried out in panic.

But it wasn't the floor at all, it was the bottom of the tube. His breath hitched and he really began to tremble as the ceiling seemed to open to a bright light and the tube made its way working up slowly.

This was it, he was about to reach the arena, about to be on his platform. The first chance he'd get to see what it was like, what would he do about the Cornucopia?

Regulus swallowed the lump in his throat his eyebrows furrowing with determination as he glanced down at his pin, he might be a Slytherin but he was strong. Everything he had been doing this past week was being filmed, he was being filmed, his reaction to his pin, maybe he should have whispered something in the desperate hope that Sirius could see it.

He closed his eyes as he felt the tube reach its limit and opened them slowly gazing around.

This was The Hunger Games arena….

He blinked around, it was daylight, morning light of a few minutes to eight, the clouds were overcasting the sky and there was a light but warm breeze. Typical weather for this time of year. Okay. Plenty of thick trees surrounded them like an overgrown forest, whether it would be hard to batter through or not he wasn't sure but he was going to take some advice, snatch what he could and get the fuck out of there.

"Welcome to this years annual Hunger Games!" he heard the Ministers voice roaring, he could imagine people cheering right now even if he could not hear them. He wasn't certain of the location of the arena but he knew it was big and vast with plenty of charms to repel Muggles.

The tube slowly lowered around Regulus and he knew not to step from his platform, there had only been one occasion he'd seen where anyone had stepped off and true enough they were instantly killed for disobeying really the only rule in the competition.

"With only minutes to go until these twenty four brave young men and women are released to fight to the finish, the crowd are on their feet!" Caesar's voice rang out in second.

"Yes, the scores were published, people are deliberating and after the bloodbath sponsors will be allowed to send in items for a very high price" the Minister grinned his eyes flashing menacingly.

Regulus knew what that meant, they would charge extortionate amounts for even a biscuit or a small bottle of water and keep most of the money for themselves. The thought made him feel sick to his stomach.

"And without further ado, good luck to all of our tributes this year and may the odd be ever in your favour" Caesar said slowly.

Suddenly a timer appeared just above the Cornucopia itself, an enormous metal space.

Regulus could see all of the weapons, packets, boxes things, the best of the items were in close to the Cornucopia itself and as it got further out the less desirable items such as empty bottles for water, rope, sheets to protect you from the rain, small backpacks filled with items, wire and such were all scattered about freely a good ten metres from where they were standing so even if they didn't get in very far they would still have to be close to one another.

60…. 59…. 58…. 57…. 56…. 55…. 54…. 53…. 52…. 51….

Regulus' eyes swivelled around him, many of the tributes were bracing themselves. Diggory's eyes were fixated on the Cornucopia unblinking, his knees bent ready to take off at full speed. Pettigrew was trembling but his knees were bent ready to run, Lily was stretching out her legs, Severus looked pale, sickly and so determined as his dark eyes were landing on something Regulus couldn't quite see.

His eyes turned and he saw Potter, his tongue sticking out between his lips with concentration, Bellatrix was grinning so menacingly it brought a shiver of fear through Regulus' body. Katie stood straight and tall, Tonks' knees were bent her head darting around looking for something to select and try to grab.

50…. 49…. 48…. 47…..

Regulus' heart was racing and he took several deep breaths, he could grab a bottle, or a pack, or make a run for the trees to take cover with nothing but that would be pretty dangerous. He had the other option of going to the Cornucopia but if he did there was a very high chance he would die.

….

44…. 43… 42… 41…. 40…. 39…. 38…. 37….

Sirius was on the edge of his seat gripping it so tightly, his teeth were grinding together hard like diamonds, his eyes were wide, his heart was hammering. He could see his brother standing there looking lost and frightened, other people did look afraid too but Regulus was so little and nervous it made Sirius' anxiety reach its peak.

Rita was standing there looking sharp, she looked like she had a plan.

32…. 31…. 30….

"Halfway mark" Remus breathed clutching at Sirius' hand and on his opposite, Evan Rosier was sitting with them as they all watched together in the Gryffindor dormitory along with a girl from Lily's dormitory.

29…. 28… 27…. 26…. 25…

"I can't stand this, look at them, they're about to butcher one another!" Sirius cried out in a wild panic.

"They'll be fine, Regulus will think of something" Evan's voice cracked.

"James looks like he has an idea of what he wants" the girl commented (Mary)

"I think Peter does too" Remus breathed his eyes searching the screen as it turned around and around slowly showing each of the tributes poised, ready to leap forward like tigers and charge for whatever they could get.

….

22…. 21…. 20…. 19….. 18…. 17….

Regulus' heart was pounding faster, he could see and hear the time ticking away.

16… 15… 14…13… 12… 11….

He risked another glanced around, the tributes were shaking but some were solid and strong. He knew he couldn't outrun some of them.

10… 9…. 8…. 7….

The beeping grew louder.

Regulus' breath was coming in short, sharp bursts, he couldn't run in this state, he was so wild with panic.

6….5….

4…

A tiny sound escaped his throat.

….

Sirius was on edge tiny hissing, squeaking sounds seeping through his teeth but he didn't care, he didn't care as he watched them.

Remus was shaking all over, paler than the full moon itself as he watched Tonks on the screen planting her feet firmly ready to take off.

Oliver's hands were up and flat, he was ready to run and he was going to use aerodynamics to get there….

3…

2…

….1….

BEGIN.

Regulus' head went into a whir, it was like he was being torn through water tearing at him from either side. There was a tiny pause while everyone registered what had happened before leaping from their platforms and tearing across the thick, green grass towards the Cornucopia.

He let out a shrill cry of panic as he took off running as fast as he could, everywhere something was happening. He could see ahead of him people snatching things, shouting, Umbridge had her weapons, she had a knife and she threw it at Cedric but it only just missed.

Regulus' legs were weak but he kept going, the shittiest of items were closest to him now, he was going to take something better, he had to.

Diggory reached the golden, shining Cornucopia disappearing for a moment before appearing, his arms raised wide, muscles bulging holding an enormous, deadly trident ready to strike.

Regulus felt his heart plummet in his chest.

Potter was racing, he leapt to the side anticipating Diggory to throw it at him but instead was knocked to the ground scrabbling quickly as Ginny whirled past him. Umbridge threw another knife and it struck the ground near James' hand. He leapt to his feet and went running again.

Wood was running he leapt over a backpack and dived to the ground narrowly missing a spear thrown by Seamus.

Katie let out a scream as someone's knife struck her arm, she whirled around grabbing whatever she could.

Regulus was nearly at the good stuff when someone slammed into him knocking him painfully to the floor, he didn't just go down he flew a few feet away crashing down, turning over, rolling uncomfortably letting out a scream of terror.

This was it, he was about to die.

He groaned trying to pull himself to his feet anticipating an attack which did not come.

To his right about twenty feet away he heard screaming and saw someone- a girls light brown hair sway as she went to the ground then Lockhart was on her, hacking her to death, his wavy blonde locks flopping in his face, his expression contorted with madness. Blood sprayed everywhere and Regulus gagged turning to hurtle away from it narrowly avoiding a spear as he stumbled. Was that meant for him.

He stopped and whirled around, everywhere people were fighting, screaming, clawing, savaging one another, people were working together, James Potter and Cedric Diggory were together hacking at someone's flailing body, blood spurting out.

Regulus screamed in horror, he felt himself crumbling, everything was tearing down around him but he had to get out of here he just HAD to.

He turned and tore off towards the forest. Someone flew to the ground near him, he turned and bolted in the other direction getting away from whomever was coming after that living person.

He reached down towards the edge of the forest and grabbed something sharp and a small packet, a spear hit the tree about an inch away from his left cheek, if he had have moved up even a second later it would have struck him and he would be dead.

Without turning to find out who the owner was, he hurtled into the thick forest running slinging the bag over his back as he went. He didn't stop running, he bashed branched out of his face, trees, bushes and who knows what else. He ran as fast as he could despite the conditions, the weather was holding out, the rain wasn't appearing just let.

He could hear his own breath coming in dizzying bursts that made him want to collapse to the dirty, pine needle-covered Earth and gasp helplessly but if he dropped so close to the edge of the forest someone would come and kill him.

The screams from the Cornucopia echoed through his ears, blood curdling screams of agony, people shouting, roars of triumph, rage.

Just then Regulus' foot caught on a branch, he gasped loudly as before he could stop himself he went flying to the ground.

A split second later someone came tearing out the bushes behind him, caught their foot on his leg and slammed down hard into the ground.

Nott.

They sat up abruptly staring wide-eyed to one another before they got to their feet, swallowed.

Nott held up his hands in a submissive gesture, he and Regulus were friends. "Just this time" he breathed and Regulus nodded.

"Thank you" he knew exactly what the boy meant, he was letting Regulus go free!

Without any hesitation, Regulus turned and kept running straight, Nott's footsteps could he heard echoing away in another direction.

This was it….

He was in The Games….

….


	6. Chapter 6 Bloodbath

Regulus did not stop running, it felt like hours, he was out of breath, his legs were tired and he began to slow. In the distance he could hear the cries and sounds still echoing from the Cornucopia itself. All those innocent people, people hurt, bleeding, in agony, dying.

Normally the cannon would sound whenever someone died apart from in the initial bloodbath as they normally had too many deaths to keep firing, you would never keep track. Once the bloodbath was over they would sound the canon for each dead tribute and wait until nightfall to publish the pictures of the dead in the sky of the arena for the other's to see.

He knew he was still being recorded, nothing he did here was private so he stopped and slipped behind a tree for a moment to rest and catch his breath and hope nobody was around to see him.

The forest was still when he looked around, apart from the gentle wavering of the bushes it was still and somehow on his right it felt somewhat warmer than his left. Regulus frowned and peered through the trees. He glanced up and down and made his way slowly through them clutching at the small knife in his hand, it wasn't much but at least he was armed with some sort of weapon.

"What's this?" he breathed frowning as he peered through the trees. It was decidedly warmer here, the trees were golden and amber in colour, the grass was thick and dark green, leaves and plant debris scattered the floor and the wind blew much cooler than anywhere else. When he looked up at the sky it was clear but at the same time it was somewhat dull, like the weather you get in September when summer dies and autumn begins.

He frown and turned around glancing back to where he had just come from, the trees were all green and thick and normal.

Then it hit him.

The arena was in seasons. Zones with each season, it just had to be.

Regulus swallowed. If there was spring, summer, autumn and winter and people discovered that, they were most likely to go for one of the warmer three that was an obvious fact. Nobody would risk staying in harsh, freezing conditions especially on their first night so maybe that was where Regulus should go.

"The problem is I don't know how to find it" he muttered through his teeth and slipped further into the bushes just in case anyone came along. There would also have to be water somewhere, a lake or something and he would have to find it and he would also have to look in his pack.

Regulus pursed his lips deep in thought for a moment before he looked up and gazed around. The trees in autumn were not very thick, they wouldn't provide much cover but they would be very easy to climb and were very tall and sturdy which would make for an excellent place to rest or sleep, someone good at camouflage might be just fine here but Regulus wasn't overly good.

He decided to slip through the trees a bit further until he found the thickest part of an amber bush, he crawled underneath and unzipped his bag carefully. He couldn't be seen, he was thankful he was small enough to slip under here, nobody could possibly see him at all buried this deep in the thicket.

Inside the pack was a small bottle actually filled with water, a length of rope, a small box of Muggle plasters, a packet of plain crackers and some match's, all of which would be very useful items in the arena.

Nervously he let out a shaky breath, he couldn't believe he was here, actually here in The Games right now. So far everything around him was still and silence but the cannon had not gone off meaning the bloodbath was still going on, meaning people were dying, meaning maybe it had stopped and people were still picking over supplies. Maybe they were waiting for the Cornucopia to be cleared of all living tributes before they announced, after all, he had no real indication of how long he'd been away from it for just that he couldn't really hear much.

How many people had died so far?

Who had died?

Would he last until tonight to even find out?

Regulus was terrified and now that he was here and it was happening it felt so overwhelming he didn't want to die but he knew at some point over the next few hours or days he would lose his life.

Emitting a soft, shaky breath, Regulus forced himself to calm down and regain. He had to be strong and quiet whilst he remained here to think about what he could do next. Where would he go? What would he do?

Regulus buried himself deeper in the bush zipping his bag up and slinging it over his back. First of all he had eaten and drank so much this morning he would be set for a good few hours yet and with the water in his bag and the crackers he would have something to nibble on later but he would have to save them until he found a true source of water.

He could maybe get away with being here for a few hours or overnight tops but there was no way he could get away with it for much longer, he would surely be discovered and killed.

The sound of the cannon firing filled the air, birds shot from the trees and Regulus' eyes snapped wide open. It went off again, two tributes gone, three…. Four….

And then.

Nothing.

Regulus' skin prickled, only four people had died, that must be a record for the least amount of people killed in the initial bloodbath. He pursed his lips, his eyes fixated on a small twig, who was it? He knew one was a girl but the rest he had no clue for, it could be anyone. Hannah? Susan? Peter? Katie? Oliver? Severus? It could have been anyone, literally.

So where were the others? He'd tripped Nott over and they tore off in separate directions so it was likely he was still alive, twenty people remained in the games, eighteen besides himself and Nott. The people at home, the viewers would watch, it was likely that Sirius was feeling somewhat relieved if he had been shown Regulus was still alive, if he had seen he wasn't killed in the bloodbath everything would be alright for the most part….

He was scared, he couldn't deny that he was absolutely terrified. He felt like he was walking on very thin ice, he felt like he was walking on eggshells in fact. It was terrifying being in here not knowing where anyone was. Each of them had an enchantment placed on them so they would always know where everyone was and that they were alive so the only people that knew exactly where everyone was were the Game Makers. The cruel, evil, pathetic humans that dared throw children into such an awful place.

….

"Where is he, Remus?" Sirius breathed searching the screen with panic-stricken eyes. "I don't see him"

"You saw who died, Sirius, he's still alive somewhere" Remus breathed. "You watched who was killed at the Cornucopia"

"I know I did but I can't see my brother and until I see him I won't calm down!" Sirius cried.

"He ran into Nott though, they showed you that" Evan pointed out. "I really don't think Nott would kill him, they're friends…."

"Four people died" Sirius breathed. "Four"

"Yes" said Remus calmly. "Four, meaning that Regulus is still alive somewhere in the arena"

Sirius sniffed hard and nodded slowly, he knew it made sense to listen to Remus and Evan they were telling the truth but he was terrified. His baby brother was in there waiting to die, alone and frightened and it made Sirius sick just thinking about it.

….

Regulus wasn't sure how much time had passed as he lay quietly in the undergrowth when he heard footsteps approaching….

His heart rate quickened, his palms began to sweat, his muscles trembled and he felt so scared. Carefully he covered his nose and mouth to muffle the sounds of his nervous breathing and he pushed himself as deep and flat into the undergrowth as he possible could.

A few seconds ticked on by and he couldn't hear anything, the footsteps got closer and closer, his heart thumped harder and harder as they stopped right in front of the bush he was hiding in.

Every sense in Regulus' body, every nerve was SCREAMING with terror and panic, it took all of his inner and physical strength not to leap from the bush and run. He was centimetres away from death, terrified and alone. Any second now and something would come crashing through those bushes and kill him.

"Dammit, no good hiding places here, the trees are too bare" a voice whispered.

He risked and peeked through the bushes tilting to an awkward angle, twisting himself a little and saw the outline of Cho Chang, the older Ravenclaw girl peering ahead of her. His heart was beating so quickly for a moment as he watched the girl, sigh, turn and head off through the bushes to his right along the open space.

When she was gone he let his hands fall inhaling slowly, deeply and as quietly as possible. His adrenaline was pumping so hard through his veins, that had been close. One person on their own he wasn't overly certain about being killed by them but there were so many tributes left in The Game right now it could be any number of them.

"I can't stay here" Regulus said to himself, he took his knife in his hand and slid out from the thicket checking the coast was clear before heading deeper into the autumn zone, as far away from the direction Cho went in as possible, he didn't want to be seen by her but then again it would be a good idea to follow someone at a distance, if they were caught he would know to get the hell away from there but he had no idea where anyone went. It wouldn't be long before people realised the arena was in seasonal zones and most likely they would head for the warmer ones, not just to have a good first night but some of them would be hunting and would figure people would go there stupidly thinking they would be okay.

Regulus either had to stay here or head someone colder, it wasn't a good idea to burn the energy he had on the first day but he needed to get somewhere safe. Higher ground?

He didn't stop walking, the zone seemed to go on forever and the weather wasn't changing, typically autumn. He stopped every so often to look around and check the trees for coverage and to see if anyone was about.

So far, so good.

The further he walked now the more he began to notice tiny things, leaves that were green, lighter grass, warmer glimmers of sunshine, the sky was becoming a warmer, softer colour and Regulus was certain he was not only approaching the summer zone, the time was also changing and it was probably close to lunchtime by now.

With a sigh, Regulus stopped and gazed around him again then up at the trees, these ones were covered much better. He picked one, a nice one and slowly began to climb it. He wasn't strong and he slipped as he grappled at the dips, branches and scrambled hard. His hands hurt but he made it up to the first decent branch but it probably wouldn't be enough. Carefully he continued to climb, the fact there were more branches the higher he went was better and he was shielded. He'd chosen a nice, fat, high one so he had a decent view of anyone coming and carefully he set down on a branch clutching at his knife. He did not want to lose that or his pack they could save his life.

Opening his bag he sipped a tiny bit of water and secured the lid carefully putting it back in, he didn't want to take too much but that was part of the reason why he was walking so far because he wanted to find a source of water.

The sound of the canon interrupted his thoughts and he froze his eyes going wide.

Another tribute was down that totalled five today so far.

Regulus swallowed and closed his eyes sitting closer in to the tree, he hadn't heard screaming or any other noises and in the woods things echoed so they couldn't have been very close at all, whoever it was had dropped the total of tributes down to nineteen including Regulus so that had to be a bonus. At least he would finish out of the last five….

….

Hours passed and Regulus felt fine, there wasn't a sound, there was no more canon firing and nobody had appeared anywhere and he had been scouting for them all afternoon.

As the evening drew in it did not cool down very much it stayed a nice, mild temperature with a light, warm breeze so Regulus knew he could get some sleep tonight too which was always a bonus despite the fact he had horrific images in his head of opening his eyes to a brutally grinning face whom would hack him to death a split second later.

His last moments….

As it grew dark, Regulus was beginning to relax some more, the darkness would provide excellent cover for him and for anyone else still out there.

He swallowed and sat back watching the beautiful sun setting over the horizon through the trees lighting the sky with orange, pink, blue and purple hues it was gorgeous especially when the odd few amber leaves caught glimmers of the golden light making it looks outstandingly beautiful. Which was what made it all the more sad….

….

"He's still there, Sirius" Remus said softly. "I know you love him but look, he's still there we can see him sitting in that tree!" Remus actually smiled watching the camera showing Regulus' hiding spot in the high tree completely shielded and safe.

"And here is fourteen year old Regulus Black, one of our remaining tributes safely hidden up a tree" Caesars voice called as he appeared at the edge of the recording with his grin on. "It appears he is waiting to find out which of our tributes did not make it and for anyone that missed the bloodbath or did not see which tributes were killed in a few minutes their pictures will appear in the nights sky of the arena, perhaps we should watch with Regulus" he went on.

Sirius' breathing was settling down, he'd barely seen a lick of Regulus all day it was all about the other people, who was doing what, watching that poor person being hacked to death earlier on. The terror when Cho appeared and stood right near where his brother was hidden this morning….

Regulus sat in his tree watching the sky become black, the gently twinkling of the beautiful stars made it a truly glorious night until Caesars face appeared in the sky and his heart skipped a beat.

"And here we are at the first night of The Games, five tributes have been eliminated from this years Games so far and their images will appear in the order they died with their placing, their District, name and who or what they were killed by" he explained with a sad smile.

Regulus watched and waited his eyes flickering around that area desperately hoping for something as he watched the first picture appear.

Susan bones: District 4- place 24th – killed by: Gilderoy Lockhart District 1.

It hovered there a moment before fading out slowly and the second picture appeared. Regulus' eyes were wide with anxiety, would any of his friends have survived their first day too? He sure hoped so….

Zacharias Smith: District 9 – place 23rd- killed by Bellatrix Black District 2.

Regulus swallowed, two down, three to go, he thought as the image faded and a full picture of Hannah Abbott appeared in the beautiful sky. District 9 – place 22nd- killed by Dolores Umbridge District 1.

Regulus got the feeling that maybe District 1 were trying very hard to gain sponsors, if they ran away without killing anyone then they might not get sponsors being seen as the overly fancy, pompous and very made-up boy and girl they appeared to be, they had to appear like strong killers and excellent contenders for people to even consider spending money on them.

The next picture appeared in the sky.

Katie Bell District 6- place- 21st- killed by Bellatrix Black District 2.

Regulus pursed his lips. It appeared old Bella wouldn't be holding back on anyone. He watched the last picture appear in the sky.

Peter Pettigrew District 10- place- 20th- killed by Cedric Diggory District 4.

Regulus sighed softly with relief watching the final image fade from the sky, nineteen of them were left and if anyone was killed now they wouldn't show the picture until tomorrow night. He watched Caesar's face appear on the screen looking distinctly sympathetic.

"And it looks like District 9 are completely out of the games with 10, 4 and 6 taking some damage too" he hissed through his teeth. "Best of luck to the rest of our tributes and may the odds be ever in your favour…." He said as his own image faded from the sky.

Regulus swallowed and looked down, he was scared five people had died today, five innocent people. Even if they weren't pure or overly clever r amazing they were still people and they deserved to survive longer than that.

What must be going through the heads of their families? Nausea, terror, grief and disbelief? He wasn't sure….

….

At the Black family household….

"I'm so glad he's alive!" Walburga sobbed into her husband's chest. "For a minute there I might have thought- thought…." She cried even harder unable to even finish her sentence as her husband held her in his strong arms.

"He's alive, that's all we can hope for" Orion breathed tears trickling down his own cheeks.

Kreacher bowed his head very low in a mark of respect to not just them but master Regulus as well….

….

"Please get through tonight, Reg…." Sirius whispered. "Please get through tonight….

….

Regulus wasn't entirely sure when he had fallen asleep or how even until he woke to the sunlight glittering through the trees the next morning. He blinked and winced trying to shield his face. He would like nothing more right now than to go to sleep in his own comfortable bed at home with kisses from his mother, father and even Sirius too, for Kreacher to bring him his morning black tea with no sugar or milk. He swallowed hard and bit back the tears that threatened to leak down his face at any thought of his family still being out there somewhere, nervous and frightened for him, worried and convinced they would never see him again and watching him die in agony in front of the entire United Kingdom….

He opened his pack, drank half of his water and ate a couple of crackers, enough to keep him going so he could find something to drink and a source of water himself. He felt safe in his tree, he truly did but he had to keep going today, he needed to find another resting place, get some bearings and try to find the winter zone, he was on the borderline of summer and judging by the warmth that was flooding over him it would be hot, probably not a great place but it was something.

Just as he was about to get down from the tree the sound of the canon made him jump, he almost slipped and fell but managed to catch himself and lower down slowly onto the next branch.

Someone had just been killed somewhere in this very arena, a life had ended and now there was only eighteen of them left including Regulus himself….

A second later and the canon went off again, someone else had been killed. Perhaps an allied team? Was there a chance people were allying in more than pairs? Regulus suspected so.

As soon as his feet touched the ground he heard a deafening scream. Whirling around his eyes were darting through the trees but he couldn't see anything, he heard it again and began to panic. He had no clue where the scream was coming from but then he heard voices.

"Check around she has to be somewhere!"

Regulus frowned racking his brain, it sounded like Cedric's voice.

A rush of panic washed over him again as he heard someone approaching, he couldn't run, he had nowhere to go so carefully scrambled up into the tree climbing as high as he could, the rush of adrenaline feeding his muscles the power they needed. Fight of flight and he was going to choose flight.

Making himself comfy on his branch, Regulus pressed back against the firm bark of the tree and remained as still and silent as possible.

Minutes ticked by and nothing happened then the sound of feet scratching the floor as though brushing things aside caught his attention.

"I can't see her, she must have made a run for it!" the second voice followed and Regulus instantly recognised it as James Potter whom was speaking. He swallowed hard and remained still and perfectly silent, there was no way in hell he could take on both James and Cedric together let alone separately, they were way too strong and talented for a little weakling like him with only a small cutting blade as a weapon.

"Alright, nice kill by the way!" Cedric's voice echoed back.

They were getting closer.

"Thank you, I believe we make a good team" James laughed very arrogantly.

Regulus rolled his eyes, disgusting!

"Hey, I wonder where that pink-haired girl went" Cedric commented. "Tonks is her name I think"

"Yeah, from 12" James said. "My friend is dating her from back home, Remus Lupin"

"Oh really?" Cedric seemed to smirk.

….

Sirius was gripping the edge of his seat staring hard at the screen as he watched Cedric and James part as they walked around the very tree his little brother was sitting in. The camera showed him high up shrivelled back to the trunk watching them looking tiny and terrified as they continued walking on past. One false move and they would turn around and kill him.

"I thought better of James than to kill someone" Remus said bitterly. "That was disgraceful"

"Regulus is alive though" Sirius muttered watching them continue going having apparently not notice the boy.

"And what they said about me and Tonks, how dare they when she is in the arena!" Remus said angrily.

"Don't get worked up about it" said Mary flipping her blonde hair from her face. "She might come and kill them yet"

"She might but she might not" Remus said back coolly. "You just watched James kill someone and someone else being killed over the other side of the arena, it's twisted" he commented.

"Stop fighting" Sirius hissed. "Just be thankful that Regulus is alive, it's awful what happened to Peter but we knew he would not survive for very long in those conditions"

They swallowed and nodded their agreement.

"Sirius there's something I want to say to you" Evan said breaking the short silence that followed.

Sirius looked up and frowned confusedly.

"I want to sponsor Regulus"

Sirius' jaw nearly hit the floor.

….

Back in the arena, Regulus watched as Cedric and James passed. Cedric with his trident and James with a deadly sharp and possibly rather heavy axe. Regulus was sure he wouldn't be able to cart that thing about all the time and maybe Potter would grow tired with it and become weak enough for someone to pick off. As for Diggory, Regulus had a feeling that boy might win this whole thing.

After a good half hour had passed, he climbed down from the tree and headed left through the trees well away from the direction they had gone in, closer to the direction Cho had gone yesterday. Was it her who had been killed? Regulus wasn't sure but through the trees he could see something rising through the hair a few drops of blood falling onto leaves. The bodies were being removed now the killers had stepped away from the corpse'.

He bit back his nausea and kept pushing on, he had to find water, he had to find another safe spot and he had to get away from all of this. There were only seventeen people left to fight, that was seven people that were killed and Regulus was slowly crawling closer. He wanted to finish as close to the end as possible to try and make his family proud and he would not kill anyone if he could help it.

A couple of hours passed of just walking and Regulus' ears pricked to a sound. He paused and listened closely, it sounded like a running stream somewhere nearby.

Carefully he looked around, a source of water meant a higher chance of meeting another tribute and that meant a much higher chance of death.

He swallowed and finished the last of his water in his bottle, he stopped to pee a while back come to find his urine was normal and thankfully he had not dehydrated as of yet, making his way forward he pushed through the trees.

The weather had changed, the heat from the summer zone was fading away now and it felt like he was moving back into the area, that middle area where the weather was flat and normal. He peered up through the trees there wasn't really very much to see apart from the stray cloud drifting on by.

Without thinking, Regulus pressed on and crouched down checking around himself behind some bushes. He carefully peered out through his hiding spot his good eyes leering around checking every inch of the area he could see to be sure nobody was hanging about there waiting to kill.

It was only day 2 but there were still a lot of tributes left in the arena so his chances, even though the arena was huge, were good of him finding someone soon.

When the coast seemed clear, he slipped out of his hiding spot and to the edge of the water keeping as low as possible he washed his hands then dunked them in the crystal clear, running water and drank deeply from them before filling his bottom with as much as it could hold, it could hold a surprising amount, it must have had a slight charm to modify it on as it would be enough for a day for him if he paced himself carefully.

Just as he was screwing the cap on the sound of rustling caught his attention.

Regulus froze and looked up very slowly.

Ginny Weasley sprang up through the bush her bow aimed directly at his heart.

Regulus cried out in panic, stuffed the bottle in his bag and threw himself to the side as she released an arrow and it shot down hitting the rock beside of him.

He looked up again and saw her loading another arrow, without thinking he grabbed the one she had previously shot, took off and bolted through the trees shoving that and his bottle into his back, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts.

He had been seen, someone had caught him and she was trying to kill him. There was nothing nice, no friendly hello, no recognition in it despite the fact they actually knew each other. He would know her stocky but slim stature and her flaming hair framing her very rounded face anywhere, he was certain it wasn't Lily with those shooting skills.

He could vaguely here her running but she was miles behind him and he didn't stop until he was out of breath and on the verge of collapse.

She had nearly caught him and he had nearly died….

Regulus stopped behind a heavy cluster of trees, the air was still and crisp as he caught his breath. The temperature was dropping somewhat and he knew he had to be close to the winter zone now, sort of, it felt like he was gradually approaching, maybe he was in spring? Regulus wasn't sure but at least now he had some water and he still had crackers.

Taking a deep breath, Regulus pressed on into the arena….

….


	7. Chapter 7 Day 3

Regulus didn't stop walking at all, he wasn't about to risk a break as he walked bending low, his height helped him drastically when it came to sneaking around and not being caught. He hadn't seen or heard from anyone, whether anyone had been hiding out and saw him pass and had decided not to attack he wasn't sure but he planned to keep well out of the way of people just in case.

It took until late afternoon when he really began to feel the chill in the air, he'd stopped a little while ago to pick a good amount of blackberries, he was certain they were safe, he'd even tasted a couple and they were fine hours ago so he'd stocked up on them not having much else to eat. He planned to try and set a trap to catch something proper but he was hoping that maybe the numbers would go down.

Over the past few hours the canon had not sounded once and he was feeling pretty nervous, this many people in the arena and nobody was killing each other. Not that he wanted them to die of course but because he wanted a few less in here but once they become less that meant things were getting more serious and they would start really tracking and hunting one another down.

As Regulus looked up at what he could see of the sky above him, the darker clouds were moving in. "Snow" he breathed gazing at them as he walked, that probably wasn't a good sign but the woods were eerie silent here.

The trees were not providing too much cover but nobody would be out here especially when he started to see the frost growing on things, no doubt people would be in the other three zones right now, they would be sticking to basic survival and find somewhere warm and covered to hide out in.

….

"I feel so bad for him" Sirius said quietly as they got a clip of Regulus walking on his own and zipping up his jacket. "He looks so small and scared I wish I could be in there with him to protect him"

"You're doing all you can" Remus breathed. "Evan has sent off the money and the request for him, that's all we can do, I would sponsor him if I could afford to but I can't even afford to sponsor Tonks"

Sirius swallowed and nodded. "And I wouldn't expect you to sponsor him anyway but he's my little brother and I never realised how much he means to me until I saw his name being pulled out of that balls, the odds were not in his favour"

"Sirius there's nothing more you can do other than hope he's going to be okay" Remus smiled gently. "And hope that if the worst should happen, and I'm not saying that it will, but if it did then it would be over quickly and with as much dignity as possible" he spoke very softly.

Sirius swallowed and turned his face away. He knew what Remus was saying was right, if Regulus were to die he would rather it was over quickly for Regulus' sake rather than anyone else's.

"He looks like he's doing well so far, he got away from Ginny very well and he didn't blow his cover to Prongs or Cedric" Remus smiled optimistically. "That is something, it shows he can compete in these Games"

Sirius smiled and nodded. "Thanks, Remus, that makes me feel a bit better"

Remus smiled and chuckled softly. "You have to have a positive attitude about these things even though they're horrendous, being negative brings on more negativity and that's the same way for everything"

Sirius nodded, he was just about to open his mouth and say something when the canon sounded again and he froze.

His eyes flickered to the screen and an enormous wave of relief washed over him.

Not Regulus.

….

Regulus swallowed and froze, the sound of the canon had boomed through the air making him freeze but once again he hadn't heard anything. Nervously he turned on his heels and picked up his pace heading deeper into the chilly forest.

Luckily his jacket was really helping to keep him warm and he pulled it up snuggling into it deeper, he didn't feel cold but he was frightened and he hadn't had much food today so conserving body heat was a must, that was basic survival anyone would know about.

He kept walking and hours seemed to pass without seeing or hearing anybody, he didn't stop for one second as slowly the snow began to creep through the trees in a thin, sugared layer that was almost ominous like mist on a winters morning. He didn't stop walking watch as it growing deeper and deeper. The temperature continued to drop but thankfully due to the lack of wind and his lovely jacket, Regulus was staying warm.

"Maybe I could melt some snow and drink it" he breathed gazing down at the blanket of pure white crunching under his feet.

Shit.

Footprints.

With each next step he took he scrubbed the show away in flicks trying to disguise them, it worked for the most part and if he could get to higher ground he wouldn't have such a problem.

He kept walking, it was cold and very still, almost too still but if anyone was around then Regulus would hear them instantly.

He kept going and found a small path which thankfully did not pick up the last of his footprints he scrubbed away it before he continued along it clutching his knife in his cold hand.

He hated this, hated it here, hated living in fear and would much rather in the Forbidden Forest right now than to this, anyone would but he couldn't and he just had to keep going for his own safety.

As night began to crawl in, Regulus was hungry, tired and a big cold. He needed to find somewhere to camp for the night.

As the light faded further, the dark inky blackness bled deeply into the sky overhead, Regulus found his way through the trees, the evergreens were must thicker and deeper here so carefully he slipped underneath one crawling as far under as he could and reaching around so scrub away his last tracks. He was safe, sort of, nobody would be able to see him hidden in here.

Swallowing he looked up and began to climb, thankfully he was light and managed to get higher up to where the branches were thick enough to support him and carefully he made himself comfortable peeking out through the small breaks in the branches watching and waiting.

It wouldn't be long now, the pictures of the three dead tributes would appear in the sky very shortly revealing the faces of the fallen tributes and who had caused their deaths. Sixteen people still left in The Games on day two, this wasn't good this was rather a lot left.

He opened his pack, sipped some more of his water and ate several more crackers with berries. He was hungry but he had to conserve his food supplies, he had lots of berries but the last thing he wanted was a bad tummy in here. Tomorrow he would have to get up and find some food, if he couldn't trap anything he would have to forage for berries and grass and anything he recognised to be safe and edible and just live like a herbivore for a while until he could find something.

Several minutes later after the sky had turned completely dark, Regulus watched as Caesar's face appeared in the sky, his electric blue hair especially vibrant today.

"Well done, tributes, three more have been eliminated and removed from the arena today and sixteen of you remain, the tributes will be shown in death order from today" he said flashing his teeth before his face faded to nothing.

The picture of Oliver wood appeared in the sky and Regulus swallowed, he hadn't expected anything more.

Oliver Wood District 6- place- 19th – killed by Rita Skeeter District 8.

Regulus swallowed, Bellatrix wasn't holding back. He watched the picture fade out again and another appear of a boy with white blonde hair.

Draco Malfoy District 11- place 18th- Killed by James Potter District 8.

The picture slowly faded out after a good few seconds and Regulus watched the third and final image appear on the screen, frankly he was not surprised at this death as of what Cedric and James were talking about earlier, they were hunting her down anyway.

Pansy Parkinson District 11- place 17th- Stung to death by Tracker Jackers after falling into their nest.

Regulus hissed through his teeth, those were nasty insects. They wouldn't attack unless provoked they were very much like genetically enhanced wasps however their stings caused powerful hallucinations and agony but in extreme cases they could cause even death. If you stayed away from them they would stay away from you.

He quickly glanced around to make sure there were none here but the chances of them surviving in such low temperatures was very small. He felt safe here, safe like he had last night as he watched Caesar's face appear back again pursing his lips, his forehead creased deeply with pity.

"And that is the final tribute from District 6 to leave the arena, District 11 have also been cleared out, such a pity but we will not return until tomorrow night when we reveal any new deaths in The Hunger Games" his voice was low. "Best of luck to our tributes and may the odds be ever in your favour" he tilted his head down in something close to a nod before his image disappeared from the screen and Regulus sighted softly pulling his coat further around him.

He shivered slightly listening intently to the sound of nothingness around him, everything was still and quiet which meant although it was eerie he was safe. He would have to settle down to sleep now, this was his second night here and it was frightening but somewhat familiar now. He felt safe in his tree, maybe this could be a resident place for him to come to, he hadn't heard or see anyone in the winter zone at all and from the sounds of things they were either being killed returning to the Cornucopia or more likely they were dying in the spring or summer zones.

It was much colder here and as Regulus peered up at the sky through the small break in the branches he could see tiny flakes of shimmering snow start to fall….

….

The next morning when Regulus woke, he snacked on a large portion of his berries and finished off one more cracker sipping some of his water bottle. He wasn't sure what to do now, he was safe here, could he just sit here all day and hide out?

"If I sit here all day I will run out of food, I could survive with the water I have and gather snow but I definitely can't go without anything proper to eat" he breathed to himself putting his things carefully into his pack and holding his blade in his hand.

Carefully he slid down from the tree with his bag on his back and paused for a moment to listen before he peeped his head out and looked around.

Nothing.

Regulus decided to wait for a moment but nothing happened so he slipped out and took off through the trees running just in case anyone was about he didn't want them to find his hiding place, it was a lot colder but less exposed and he knew he was burning more energy than he should have by running and living in low temperatures but it was safer than being anywhere else.

He hadn't heard the canon last night so darkness was apparently providing a very good cover for most people wherever they were sleeping.

Carefully he made his way through the trees weaving and taking note of where he'd been before he slipped through some bushes and continued going.

Perhaps he should do the dangerous thing and head back to the Cornucopia and find some good, whether anyone was hanging about waiting for someone to return in search of food or supplies he wasn't sure where anyone was or how far he would have to go to get them but he just kept walking.

….

"See, Sirius" Remus smiled gently. "Another morning and he is alive, Tonks is alive and James is alive" he breathed softly his heart swelling with joy. "They're all doing just fine"

"I know, look at them" Sirius breathed his eyes focused on James as he walked through the Summer zone, baking sunshine with Cedric, armed with their deadly weapons and bags full of goodies. "I don't even recognise James anymore…."

Remus sighed. "I know"

"Regulus should get the gift I paid for tonight" Evan smiled gently as he walked into the dormitory with them, they had allowed him up mainly as extra support for Regulus.

"What did you send him?" Sirius asked curiously.

Mary was not there today.

"A surprise I think he's really going to like" Evan grinned and sat down pulling his fingers across his mouth in a zipping motion as though he were not going to say another word.

….

As Regulus walked through the forest he spotted another bush, he's made it back into that middle zone where everything was constant, he hurried over and glanced around before snatching some more blackberries from it loading them carefully into his bag. He knelt down loading handfuls of grass in there too, it couldn't hurt to have something extra to eat if he was stuck and grass wouldn't hurt him.

He looked up his eyes scanning the trees, maybe some fruit or something was growing nearby. Just as he moved something shot past his ear the sound reverberating thought the trees.

Regulus' mouth opened and he whirled around in horror.

Seamus Finnigan.

The boy stood holding another throwing knife, the knives _he_ should have had, not Seamus.

Regulus' eyes went wide and he took a step back, bad move.

Seams came running towards him his arm held back. He threw and Regulus cried out leaping to the side he caught his leg on a brand and fell heavily to the floor. Seamus ran towards him as he scrambled desperately in a flailing wild panic trying to get up, his foot was wedged and he couldn't get it out.

_Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream. _

He thought to himself desperately, a million thing shooting through his mind.

Without thinking he ripped out his blade twisting himself trying to get free, thrashing and sobbing like a helpless little animal in a snare.

Seamus got closer and leaped.

Regulus braced himself gasping in horror, the boy had a knife in his hand. Clenching his eyes shut, Regulus forced his blade forward and-

A sickening noise broke through the still air around them. Regulus gasped in horror his eyes flying open.

Seamus had landed heavily on top of him, Regulus' knife deeply embedded in his stomach. The boy's eyes were wide, his face paling dramatically.

Regulus looked between them and saw the blood seeping through Seamus' closed and he gasped in horror.

Seamus' own knife had very lightly grazed the size of Regulus' neck, it stung and it was warm but it wouldn't do him any harm.

Seamus looked down into Regulus' eyes as blood began to bubble on his lips, he looked like he were about to say something.

Regulus whimpered and using all the strength he had, he pointed his foot and yanked it breaking it free of its bonds as he pushed Seamus off of him heaving the boy to his side.

Seamus made an attempt to get up, his body jerking violently when Regulus' blade was ripped from his body.

Regulus heaved clapping a hand over his mouth, his fingernails black with mud. He felt sick to his stomach, he'd stuck a knife in someone and the boy was obviously dying.

He glanced back, Seamus was gasping, blood seeping into his clothes and from his lips, his eyes were rolling, his skin paling and he was wriggling slowly and weakly like a dying rodent trapped on his back.

He had to do something, just end it quickly.

Regulus refused to think as he made a move and jumped forcing himself down he straddled Seamus' thighs and sank his blade deep into the boy's chest causing his body to jerk beneath him at the sudden, sharp impact, Regulus ripped it out and stabbed again, and again, and again, the chest and the stomach until Seamus' body went still beneath him and he withdrew the blade getting to his feet just as the canon sounded.

Regulus looked wildly around him terrified someone- an ally- would come running through the bushes but nobody came. He was panting, wild, terrified, he had just killed someone…. _Killed_ someone! An innocent life ended because of him!

Regulus heaved again but nothing come up, thankful he was able to hold onto his meagre stomach contents.

Soon someone would be sent to retrieve the body when Regulus moved away, he knew what he had to do, he had to take his chance and pillage for supplies.

He snatched up Seamus' knife using the boy's jacket to wipe his own clean on and clipped it to the outside of his belt, he ran and snatched the other knife from the tree it had struck, it was a little blunted from the impact but still good enough to use.

He swallowed turning around his eyes searching the floor, Seamus had a pack, he must have gotten it from the Cornucopia.

Regulus felt terrible for robbing a dead person but he had to do it to survive, he quickly ran over to it, ripped it open savagely and rifled through the things.

An unopened packet of crackers, a spare water bottle, and- what's this? Wrapped in a small piece of white bandage was what looked like a cooked piece of ham or some other form of red meat.

Most likely from a sponsor, it looked like the sort the Ministry sent in when they were paid, cut perfectly into a square, well-cooked and pretty. Regulus sniffed it, looked just fine so he shoved that and the remaining goodies into his bag before he looked wildly around him, he had to get out of here and quickly….

Taking his spot, he turned and ran back through the trees….

….

Sirius wailed partly with horror and partly with relief. He didn't give a damn he was sobbing in front of people, he didn't give a shit he was sobbing in front of a Slytherin.

His brother was alive, his brother was okay even if he was a killer.

"He did it to save his own life, Sirius" Remus said supportively.

"Yeah, if he hadn't have stuck his knife out he would have been stabbed in the throat and died very quickly" Evan nodded his agreement. "Self-defence"

Sirius sniffed hard and nodded trying to regain himself. "I almost lost him today, it's hard to believe that's him down there killing people…."

"He has only killed one" Remus said supportively. "He killed Seamus and took his things and got away from there quickly in case anyone else showed up, he was sensible…."

Sirius swallowed and nodded. "I guess you're right…." He breathed.

….

"Well then, looks like Regulus has become a killer" Avery smirked as they all sat in the Great Hall watching. "I'm actually very impressed"

"Maybe he does have something of a chance in here then" Mulciber nodded his agreement. "I feel sorry for the poor kid though"

"He wouldn't have killed if he could have helped it" Wilkes spoke gently. "Good for him"

They all murmured and nodded their agreement.

….

Mr and Mrs Black were sobbing with tears of relief and shock. Their son had become a killer!

….

Regulus didn't stop running until he reached the Winter zone again, there had been nobody around and over an hour ago he saw them remove the body some minutes after he had left.

He pressed on, he needed to get back to his little safe haven and eat and protect himself and do everything he could not to think about the fact he had just murdered someone!

When he eventually found his way back to his secret tree, he looked around, nobody was about and he slipped under and climbed back to where he was last night. He was safe here and he was so high up if he was careful he could look out and watch for oncoming dangers.

He opened his pack, drank a few deep gulps of water with shaking hands and quickly ate the whole piece of meat. It was fresh, delicious and probably only sent to Seamus an hour or two before he died. It wasn't warm anymore from running around this zone but it was something and that was better than nothing.

Once he'd finished he popped a few berries in his mouth and sat back to admire his new weapons. Throwing knives, he could throw quite well, he wasn't bad at it at all actually.

….

Sirius sat there watching Ginny Weasley prowling through the Autumn zone with her loaded down peering around with stealthy movements and sharp, brown eyes.

"She's just looking to kill anyone she can find" said Remus. "She means to win"

"Mm" Sirius nodded and thought back to the deaths of the other tributes so brutally shown; Susan being hacked to death in the bloodbath by Lockhart, Bellatrix putting a dagger in Zacharias' throat then repeatedly stabbing his jerking dead body, eyes rolled back, mouth hanging open and blood trickling from it, Hannah Abbott being brutally beaten to death with a club by Umbridge, Peter with a trident right through his heart, Oliver Wood roped up whilst Rita Skeeter dragged her blade through him cutting pieces off of him until he died, Draco Malfoy taking an axe to the skull and Pansy falling from those branches down into the nests of insects, screaming in terror and agony as the vicious bugs invaded her face, eyes, nose, through every crevice of her body and stung her to death, her swollen body covered in green puss, distorted beyond recognition and Seamus falling on Regulus' knife then his innocent baby brother hacking the boy to death with his blade…. Sirius wanted to gag at the thought and brutality of it all.

….

Regulus spent the whole afternoon sitting in his tree, his eyes closed or occasionally peering out looking for something. He did see the occasional bird fly past unknowingly and he sort of wished he had a bow and arrow so he could try and shoot something down. But what would he cook it with?

He sighed, if he had a metal pan he could heat it up with some water and make a soup out of bits of foliage but right now he couldn't do that, he just had to get on with things as they were and hopefully come across some more stuff later on.

….

"Severus…. Sev, I'm scared" Lily whispered as the two of them slipped deep under the roots of a tree pulling leaves and bits of bushes over them to completely shield them from view.

"Shh, if we stay down here and stay quiet hopefully nobody will find us for now" Severus whispered.

They had just narrowly escaped being caught by Lockhart and Umbridge whom were already both looking less than fancy, their curls loose and hanging all over the place, their clothes were a little torn and hanging off oddly, their faces contorted with stress and their weapons at the ready.

Their breath caught in their throat as they heard the footsteps approaching.

"I don't see anybody around here" Lockhart commented quietly to Umbridge. "I think they're all hiding somewhere"

"Somebody was killed earlier on, maybe they were killed around here" Dolores said back. "We won't find out who it was until tonight"

"I reckon it was perhaps Bellatrix again" he said quietly.

Severus and Lily exchanged looks. So it wasn't one of them who did it.

"But everybody seems to be very good and hiding right now" he said slowly.

They could actually see his feet as he stood facing away from the piece of branch they had shielding part of the roots. Their hearts were hammering in their chests and they tried to remain as still and silent as possible.

"If we could find out where these hiding places are then we could keep coming back and searching them, but where are they, Gilderoy?" Dolores asked with some irritation.

"I think they are probably in bushes or inside of hollow trees or something like that" Gilderoy said back.

Severus and Lily couldn't help but smirk to one another.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to keep walking" he sighed finally.

"Good idea, I quite agree" Dolores said back and slowly their footsteps retreated away.

Severus and Lily remained under there for over an hour in silence just in case they hadn't really gone away and were hoping someone would come out.

"That was close but we should stay here a while longer, it's safe" Severus whispered.

"Unless someone already knows about this spot and they plan to come back to it" Lily whispered back.

"But if they do, we will be ready" Severus smirked nodding to Lily's spear lying flat on the floor and holding up the small, black balls in his hands.

"Explosives" Lily whispered her green eyes widening.

"They won't detonate unless thrown hard against a surface so even if I were to drop one" he said and dropped one a few inches onto the floor. "Nothing would happen" he added with a smile.

"You're a genius, Sev" the girl grinned.

Severus found himself blushing with happiness.

….

A few hours ticked on by and Regulus watched the sky change to dusk, he'd been dozing off for a good majority of the day and conserving energy.

Quite a heavy snowfall came down earlier which would have thankfully covered any tracks he might have left behind. He sighed softly resting his head back against the tree, in a few hours they would display today's grand total of one death and everybody would know about what he did (everybody in the arena that hadn't seen it of course)

Regulus felt the blood beating to his cheeks. "What will Sirius and my family think of me now?" he breathed to himself.

….

"I still love you, that's what!" Sirius smiled to his screen making Remus and Evan laugh.

….

In the Great Hall an echo of 'aww' broke through as they all watched Regulus sitting there fighting back tears.

"I'm really sorry for what I did to Seamus but from my point of view it was terrifying, I nearly died today" they heard him whisper to the camera.

"Oh" Caesar commented. "Such a sweet boy" he smiled sadly.

….

Regulus was about to open his mouth and say something else, whatever came into his head when he was interrupted by the sound of a scream somewhere closeby.

His eyes widened and they flickered around as he crawled along his branch and peered through the leaves.

Just ahead he saw someone running, someone staggering and fighting as they fell thrashing on the floor.

A shrill, female laugh chorused through the air. "You think you can run but you can't hide, now with that arrow in your leg!" it was Dolores.

Regulus swallowed and continued to watch as Umbridge ran after someone- a girl?- and then laughed shrilly as Lockhart came running up behind her.

Regulus watched, his heart racing in horror as Umbridge loaded a bow with another arrow and shot the person in the back.

Another scream rang out through the arena and he hissed watching as the person writhed feebly on the floor.

"And now, I kill you" Umbridge grinned loading the boy again and shooting.

A deafening scream half left the person's throat and the birds left the trees as Umbridge's face spread into a smile and the canon fired again.

Regulus swallowed the hard lump that appeared in his throat, they were torturing their hunted tributes before they killed them, it was sick and wrong!

Regulus continued to sit and watch as they retrieved their arrows, wiped them off on the clothes.

"Come on, Dolores" Gilderoy smiled to her. "I won't stay here much longer, I can't stand the cold"

She nodded and they turned and ran off back through the forest.

It took some minutes when someone came to retrieve the body….

Regulus felt sick to his stomach. He sat back, took a few sips of his water and tried not to think about it. If someone was killed here now and people weren't willing to stay in the cold, he would be safe even if it was only Umbridge and Lockhart saying that. He swallowed and nibbled on a couple more berries as he watched the sun going down, what else could he do?

He hadn't seen anyone else close to here before and they obviously couldn't see him in his tree so he would stay here. Would it be wise to find somewhere else to stay tomorrow? Regulus wasn't entirely sure….

Regulus watched as the sky melted into beautiful colours, a real treasure of an artists' palette, every beautiful colour you could imagine, warm hues, gorgeous pastels and he sighed waiting for the darkness to come….

It was nearly two hours later when the sky was fully darkened and he watched and waited carefully as Caesar's face appeared in the sky, it felt sort of welcoming to see something like this every evening, he was alive and he'd made it through to his third night.

"Welcome all tributes, we hope you've had somewhat of a pleasant day in The Games" he said again. "Now we have our announcements of the deaths of the two fallen warriors today" he smiled gently and slowly his face began to fade from the screen.

Regulus watched in horror, his stomach almost heaved when he saw Seamus' picture appear.

Seamus Finnigan District 3 – place 16th- Killed by Regulus Black District 2.

Regulus closed his eyes, he couldn't bear to look at his name any longer, he was certain everybody would be shocked and maybe even a couple would be impressed that he'd killed someone before most of them had. Maybe they would think he was more of a tribute threat after all….

When the image faded his stomach settled somewhat as he saw the picture of a girl appear.

Cho Change District 10- place 15th- Killed by Dolores Umbridge District 1.

Regulus swallowed, so that was who he had seen. He watched as her image faded again and Caesar reappeared.

"That's it for today, we wish you all the best of luck and may the odds be ever in your favour" he smiled before fading out quickly.

Regulus emitted a long shaky breath, he knew he had to do something now.

….

"So it was Regulus" Lily gasped as they watched the sky still hidden in their partially underground spot. "He killed Seamus!"

Severus' eyes were wide and he breathed out slowly. "I'm surprised to be honest I didn't think he had it in him"

"Neither did I but I guess it depends entirely on what happened between them, I don't believe he would be hunting anyone or try to kill them first if he found them" she swallowed.

Severus nodded slowly with understanding. "No, I completely agree with you, he wouldn't"

….

"Well so Black is a killer then, huh?" Cedric chuckled as he and James stood in the woods of the spring zone watching the sky fade back to blackness. "Maybe he was a more worthy opponent after all"

"He's my best friend's kid brother" James went on. "Very tiny and weak but I am impressed"

Cedric chuckled. "Maybe we should keep an eye out for him and…. See how well he can handle two of us on one?" he grinned maliciously.

James didn't hesitate to grin back and nod. "I'm up for that"

….

Sirius gasped his eyes widening. "NO!" he cried. "No, they can't kill Reg, they can't!"

"Relax, Sirius" Evan said quickly holding an arm out to stop the boy leaping at the screen. "Regulus is safe, he's not hurting right now and they're not anywhere near him"

"Yeah, you saw them find somewhere to sleep the other night, didn't you? They won't be hunting him now…." Remus said quietly.

"As long as he keeps to himself" Sirius breathed. "I hope he'll be alright"

….

Regulus made himself as comfortable as he could sitting in a fucking tree and closed his eyes slowly trying to get cosy. He had to make a plan of action for tomorrow. No doubt now that people knew he was a killer they would attack him now if they got the chance, he couldn't stay here for too much longer, too many more nights, besides, he had to gather food tomorrow or maybe the day after too. He sighed softly and tried to clear his mind.

He needed supplies so it looked like very shortly he would be making the trip back to the Cornucopia to see if there was anything left….

….


	8. Chapter 8 Deaths Unknown

Regulus wasn't asleep for very long when his eyes fluttered open and he jumped a small noise escaping through his throat. He relaxed when he realised something small and metal and black was sliding down into his hands. Curiously he held them out and cupped it as the tiny parachute deflated. His eyes widened, a sponsor, someone was sponsoring him in hear. His breathing was fogging against the cold night air, whatever this strange cylinder held it was warm. Curiously and quietly he opened the lid thanking Merlin whoever sent it was sending them in black so as not to give away the locations of the tributes.

Unscrewing the lid, warmth radiated from it and he gasped again very softly. There was a note attached to the side and Regulus had to tilt it into the moonlight to read.

_Regulus; We're all really proud of you Sirius is beside himself but we believe in you, stay strong. – Evan x_

Regulus wanted to cry, he pursed his lips and fought back the tears tucking his note into his pocket to keep it safe. It was something from home. He brought the drink to his lips and drank the warm fluid, perfect temperature even if it was only small, his eyes widened.

Hot chocolate. With fresh cream on top, chocolate sprinkles and someone had sprinkled a small amount of cinnamon in it making it taste of Christmas. He moaned softly at the flavour, it was so delicious, so warming, Evan had obviously sent it knowing he was in the cold, it was obviously full of sugar, fatty cream, chocolate chunks too, intending to fill up his energy and give him something nice and fatty in his system which would help feed it. It was definitely an enormous difference from the other stuff he was surviving on like the berries and the water and crackers. He finished his drink licking it completely clean inside, he had never been more grateful for anything in his life.

"Thank you" Regulus breathed looking up at the sky, he was certain he would be being filmed right now and he wanted to thank Evan for paying what would have probably been close to twenty galleons if not more for that one little cup of hot chocolate and his note. That was very expensive seeing as it usually only cost a few sickles and nuts if that!

….

Sirius was sniffling softly as they watched him finish the drink and wish a thank you to them.

"I'm glad he enjoyed it" Evan smiled gently.

"That was a good choice to send in" Remus said to him. "I think it made him happy and it'll help warm him up, it must be freezing there everything is frozen over he's keeping his water bottle under his clothes"

Evan smiled softly. "He deserves it"

"Thanks so much for sponsoring him" Sirius smiled shaking Evan's hand. "It means a lot to me I will pay you back"

Evan shook his head furiously. "No, it's fine, I'll send him some more stuff soon, I promise" he grinned brightly.

Sirius broke down in small sobs of tears.

….

Regulus slept reasonably well that night with a full tummy and some supplies for the morning, it wasn't until the sound of the canon blasting through the air caught his attention that he really startled awake. His eyes flickered around, he hadn't heard anything, cautiously he looked down there was nothing there, he shuffled along his branch gratefully and swallowed peering out through the branches. He couldn't see a thing, the snow had fallen heavy again last night covering everything in a deep blanket of white.

"Who died?" he breathed his eyes wandering through the trees but everything was still as usual. He would just have to wait until tonight to find out he guessed.

Regulus sat back on the tree rubbing his face sleepily, that was not the nicest way to be woken up, death. He was sure he was being recorded but it was so unlikely they were showing him right now it would be the dead tribute, the killer and the people closest to that location which wasn't very likely to be here, Cho was the first person to come near here but out of desperation and because she was dying, Umbridge and Lockhart had done a runner straight afterwards.

He sat there for quite some time his mind a whir of activity and thoughts. He needed to do something today, the hot chocolate had really helped him but he still needed to get things done, he needed more food, he needed to snatch some snow for water and he needed to get some things and see if he could get a longer range weapon. Sure the throwing knifes were his best and they were somewhat long range but he wasn't amazing at throwing them, he hadn't been trained to do it since he was little he'd only had a couple of days and against some of the bigger, faster and much stronger tributes in here he would stand no chance what so ever.

He was also planning to head back to the Cornucopia today as well and see if he could find some extra supplies.

Regulus sat there for quite some time, he had to leave his safety tree but he was scared to, after what happened yesterday…. No, he would not think about that right now.

Swallowing he closed his eyes in a long slow blink and slipped from the branches climbing his way down. People would probably be hunting him now and if they came across him they would expect more from him than he running around crying as they probably assumed in the first place, he was a killer now and he was capable of doing it. When his feet touched the ground he froze listening intently for some time before peering out checking the coast was clear, nobody was about so he slipped from the cover with his knives in hand and decided to make the long way around today keeping mainly to the frozen area hiding through the maze of trees.

That was one thing he was good at, orientation, he looked for notable things to help find his way back and stepped only in the shadows or through the undergrowth being careful not to leave too many tracks. The sky was heavily clouded with this snow and the further he walked the more flakes he noticed falling from the sky. Regulus was cold but he couldn't stop to mess about now, he had things to do and he had a mission.

Carefully he kept going for an hour or two before finally the snow on the ground thinned out into a frost and the temperature rose a little bit.

The sky was clearer overhead meaning one thing. He was just inside the flat weather zone.

Regulus swallowed his anxiety, he was attacked in this very area yesterday and with around twelve other tributes still alive there was a very good chance he would be attacked again depending on where they were.

"If I was attacked on the ground and spotted then the best place for me to travel would be the trees…." He breathed gazing up and around himself. Glancing around nervously he began to climb the nearest tree. Thankfully he was small and light so he could probably get around up there alright, sure it might add some extra time to his journey but it would give him a good view of the arena area and be able to duck and cover if he did see any other tributes.

He slipped a couple of times but eventually he climbed up to a thicker branch and made his way along it, there was a small break but he jumped and landed slump on the trees. "Not very agile" he chuckled quietly glancing around to make sure he was definitely alone.

Regulus pressed on and as predicted it did take much longer and it took about two hours in fact to reach the edge of the Cornucopia.

The place was deserted.

Regulus swallowed nervously and crouched down low against the branches. With so many tributes still playing the Games he would have to be extremely careful. Odds were that there was at least one tribute still hanging about here waiting to make a kill and he did not want to be their prey.

Silver eyes roamed the trees, the bushes and the ground but after about half an hour of searching he couldn't find anyone so slowly, he lowered himself to the floor.

Still nobody about.

Carefully Regulus tucked using the cover of some of the bushes he bolted through the trees as quickly as he could trying to make the sound of his feet, the mud was thick and slippery in places (obviously to try and trip or trap tributes for murder and sick pleasure of the Game Makers) but he avoided it as best he could and kept running.

His tummy was rumbling with hunger, he felt tired but at least he was warmer as he found his way closer to the Cornucopia itself. His heart was racing as he blinked through the trees and then checked behind him looking for some sign of life.

Slowly he slipped from the cover of the trees crouching low hoping that there was nobody around to identify him as he made his way around the golden metal and into where the remaining, thoroughly picked over supplies were.

Regulus winced a little, people had obviously been at them, his eyes roamed around, he did not want to hang about here for too long so he carefully rummaged around as quietly as he could. There was a better set of throwing knives so he quickly snatched those up, another pack with sealed food items such as crackers, a small block of cheese that even though he didn't like it would be better than nothing, a packet of tissues and a small spray bottle of insect repellent. He smiled shoving the things into his bag, either people didn't want them or hadn't noticed them buried under the smashed crates, the latter was much more likely.

Amongst some of the debris, he found a small fleece blanket, folding it as small as he could he shoved it in his pack, that would definitely be of use in the winter zone.

Regulus turned around and gazed out of the shelter, he was in a dangerous spot right here if any other tributes came along they could easily trap him so he peered out of the Cornucopia and ran back for the cover of the trees, once he was safely inside he went grappling straight for the nearest tree. His pack was a little heavier but he did not care, it would make him stronger and he would have to go somewhere that was sheltered and he could stop to stuff down some food and maybe stay out of the cold zone for a while, it wasn't good for him and considering it actually wasn't exactly hot in the area he was in, he felt very warm and comfortable.

Carefully he wove through the trees swinging on the branches.

At one point he lost his footing and slipped but grabbed a hold of a branch as he fell from the height dangling from it, he looked down at the ground and horror washed over him, he could see Bellatrix feasting on something that looks disturbingly like human remains.

Regulus forced back the gag and tried to be as silent as possible, she was here, hanging around and whoever had died this morning was being devoured. Nobody would come to remove the body if she was there beside it so she must have been there for quite a few hours, that or she'd been carrying someone's parts around with her.

Quietly he swung himself up enough to climb onto a thicker branch that would actually support him properly.

….

"Come on, Reg, get away from her" Sirius said gritting his teeth and squeezing Remus and Evan's hands so tightly they were almost gasping and unable to look at the screen it hurt so badly.

He watched his brother scrambling higher up the tree his feet scraping on the bark sometimes brushing little bits off and he wondered how Bellatrix, savage old Bellatrix hadn't noticed a thing yet.

"He'll be okay, he'll get away from her" Remus managed through gritted teeth as he tried to prise his hand out of Sirius' tight grasp.

"Sorry, Moony" Sirius breathed loosening his grip on their hands.

"Look, he's escaping!" Evan said his voice airy and light, he seemed very happy about that and sighed heavily with relief.

"He's getting a lot stronger" Sirius said watching his brother making his way along the trees with more confidence than he had this morning. "Physically and emotionally, he wasn't very good at climbing before, well, he was okay but he can pull himself up more now"

"He's burning a lot of energy though" Remus commented slowly. "Too much in fact…."

The screen changed and it showed Cedric and James walking through spring and chatting together, then it flipped to Lockhart and Umbridge arguing over supplies in summer, Severus and Lily sitting in a tree together in Autumn and then to Tonks whom was gathering berries alone in the mid-section.

….

Regulus eventually dropped down through a maze of trees, in his blind attempt to escape as quickly as possible he'd lost track of where he was going.

The air was cool around here but the breeze was warm leading him to believe that he was headed towards one of the warmer zones.

Carefully he kept going unsure of where he was, the trees were brighter here, beautiful buds bloomed on the trees and the further he kept going the more flowers like Daffodils and Snowdrops were growing on the ground, blossom was appearing in the trees.

"Spring" Regulus breathed.

He felt nervous, he knew there would be other tributes somewhere near here but he wasn't entirely sure where.

The further he went the thinner the branches became and it was only about five minutes after he'd stopped for a break when a sound caught his attention and made his heart skip a beat….

Laughter.

"I reckon it's only the afternoon, a few more hours until nightfall" James' voice echoed through the trees.

Regulus froze cringing so badly his teeth were on display. If they caught him they would kill him and with Cedric's ability with a trident, they would get him for sure….

"I think we'll have to set up camp then soon, don't you?" Cedric's voice said bad and Regulus could hear their footsteps approaching.

A tiny sound made him jump and he glanced to the source of it. The branch was creaking under his weight, it was too thin.

"Please hold out, please hold out, please hold out" Regulus murmured clenching his eyes shut and trying to make his way closer in to the bark.

The branches were holding him but he was only on them for a few seconds, no more than a minute at the most and waiting on one for this length of time could really be damaging.

"I haven't seen anyone at all today" Cedric sighed almost sadly again. "It's sort of strange"

"Yeah, lots of players left in here but we can't find a single one" James replied as their footsteps moved below Regulus' tree.

His heart was hammering as he tried to creep closer, his eyes focused on where the branch was slowly breaking from the bark, he could see it practically peeling back. He was terrified.

….

Sirius was on edge, Remus and Evan were staring intently at the screen, their eyes wide and mouths open in horror watching that branch dip lower…. And lower…. And lower….

….

Regulus watched as the two boys, heavily armed made their way back through the trees.

"I wonder who got the kill this morning" Cedric mused, their voices moving further away behind Regulus.

"I'll bet it was Bellatrix" James said back.

Regulus was sure they were through the trees now, his entire body washed with relief and he sighed. Just as he went to move, the branch broke beneath him.

….

"NO!" Sirius shouted at the screen watching Regulus' terrified little face as he fell from the tree. That one mistake of an enormous cry was what started James and Cedric, the snapping of the branch they didn't even turn for.

Remus gasped loudly and jumped to his feet.

Evan cried out with shock of his own, his hands flying to his mouth and his eyes searching the screen. "NO…. no!"

….

Regulus cried out in horror as he fell from the tree, it wasn't a great height but his voice echoed loudly through the trees as he landed slump on his back in the thick grass and blue Hyacinth flowers.

James and Cedric whirled around their eyes searching until they landed square on Regulus sitting himself up slowly trying to get to his feet. Malicious grins spread across their faces.

"Well, well, well" James laughed maliciously. "What do we have here"

"I believe that's the little murderer, James" Cedric retorted nastily.

James threw his head back and barked a laugh.

Regulus' eyes were wide and he scrambled to his feet in terror, his breathing was so loud they could hear it as he whimpered in a wild panic.

"So how was it then, Black?" Cedric called twisting his trident around over his shoulder. "How did it feel to have your first kill?"

"First kill before his first kiss, no doubt…." James laughed.

Regulus swallowed and didn't say anything, he was searching the trees through the corner of his eyes trying to find a route of escape, hoping someone else would come along and if not kill them, at least kill him just so it wouldn't be the kill of those two.

"So what should we do with him then, James?" Cedric asked curiously.

Regulus watched James' hazel eyes flashing and he looked to him in pleasing. James was Sirius' best friend, would he really go so far as to kill his best friend's little brother?! Regulus suspected he would so he shot him the saddest of looks. He knew the people at home were watching all of this and hopefully some would at least feel sorry for him. He was about to die and he knew it.

….

"James if you kill him I will sponsor bloody Bellatrix to kill you" Remus snarled nastily.

Sirius and Evan looked to him in absolute shock.

"You can't hurt him, look at him he's so little, well, he's not a baby at all but look at him, how could anyone kill that face?" Remus went on muttering to himself.

"I would sponsor anyone to kill him but I can't sponsor Bella because she's family and that's now allowed" Evan sighed.

"I know" Sirius swallowed watching his terrified little brother on the screen. "Come on, Reg, run for it, what are you waiting for?"

"I think if he thinks he's going to be killed the moment he runs he's going to wait for the right moment to escape" Evan said quickly, his heart was pounding watching the two boys laughing to one another with Regulus standing there like a trapped bunny rabbit.

….

"You know something, Black?" James said taking a couple of steps towards the boy making Regulus tremble and whimper even more. "We were actually considering asking you to ally with us but look at you, look at the state of you" he said his free hand that wasn't caressing his axe gestured over Regulus' little frame. "You're terrified of just being confronted by us let along going to confront other people, you're tiny and you're skinny and you're obviously not very strong or bright…."

"Mm" Cedric said his eyebrows furrowing curiously. "So just how did you kill Seamus?" he asked his voice filled with genuine curiosity.

Regulus was silent.

"You must have done it, the Game Makers wouldn't lie…." Cedric pressed him and Regulus swallowed his eyes flickering to where James was massaging the handle of his axe.

Any minute now and he could throw it and it would end Regulus' life….

Regulus swallowed anxiously his eyes flickering between the two of them.

"Come on, Reggie…." James purred nastily. "Just tell us how you did it, we're only asking" he tilted his head to one side.

At the mention of his nickname, Regulus gasped softly. Sirius….

….

Sirius' eyes got big. "No…. NO he did not just use my nickname for Regulus on him right before he kills him, that's just plain SICK!" he roared at the screen.

….

"I knifed him" Regulus swallowed. "I pinned him down and I knifed him to death" he felt sick to his stomach over his own words but he had to push through this, it could potentially save his life.

James and Cedric roared with laughter. "More like someone else did it and you finished him off" James grinned.

"You couldn't kill a bird let alone a human being, you're probably living off bits of crap you find on the forest floor or stupid Cornucopia crackers" Cedric taunted.

Regulus blushed furiously.

"Aww bless him" James sneered. "So what's it going to be, Reggie? Should I kill you or let Cedric here do the honours?" he said stepping closer.

"I-I choose…." Regulus stammered rising to the balls of his feet, every instinct in his body was screaming to run, to flee and to get the hell away from them or at least attempt to.

"Yes….?" Cedric pressed. "Go on…." His teeth were bared in a soft grin.

Regulus shook all over and took a deep, nervous breath. "NEITHER!" he cried and before they could even register what happened he had bolted through the trees tearing through them in a wild panic as quickly as possible.

"OI!" James roared from somewhere behind him but Regulus wasn't about to stop to look back, he kept going and going.

He could hear them yelling through the trees, shouting and sweating and taunting at him but he was ignoring it, the immense amount of strength that surge of adrenaline had given him was powering him enough to run and run and run as fast as he could through the trees jumping over branching and escaping.

He skidded to a halt and tripped landing hard on his front in a short clearing.

The high rush of water pummelling the rocks below could be heard and he grunted with pain he scrambled around tripping over himself before he'd even gotten up again, he heard James calling.

"There he is!" through the trees and the crashing sounds of himself and Cedric as they came barrelling through the trees.

Regulus gasped and scrambled away kicking up to his feet just as they appeared, he saw James laugh maniacally and Cedric draw back ready to launch his trident when-

The ground beneath his feet crumbled and caved.

Regulus let out a scream, one minute he was facing his death by the boys the next he was falling…. And falling….

Spray of cold water lashed at his face and a split second later he was plunged into the icy water below being torn and ripped and flung about as he trashed trying to surface for air, he was slammed into rocks, thrown through the water, he surfaced once and gasped in a small amount of precious oxygen before he was thrust deeply under the water again his hands and legs scraping roughly on the rocky bottom, he wanted to scream, he was panicking as the fast current carried him away, he couldn't see and he was running out of air way too quickly….

"The little idiot has gone and killed himself" James roared with laughter high-fiving Cedric whom was grinning too.

"It's a shame we didn't get a kill in though…." He sighed softly.

"Yeah" James said quietly as they watched the current continue to run with no sign of Regulus what so ever. "Come on then, let's go find somewhere to camp for the night"

"You bet" Cedric nodded following James back into the woods.

….

Sirius emitted an ear-splitting scream as he watched his brother fall into the water, thrashing and being carried away.

"The currents too fast!" Evan sobbed leaping to his feet along with Remus.

The Werewolf's face was grim.

"Regulus!" Sirius cried. "REGULUS!" he screamed again.

"Maybe he'll be okay, maybe he'll-" Evan was cut short.

"Regulus can't swim!" Sirius sobbed desperately.

….

Just as James and Cedric were making their way through the forest again, they hadn't gotten very far when the sound of the canon booming overhead made both of them grin and burst into fits of laughter.

Regulus was dead.

….


	9. Chapter 9 If I die young

"_If I die young, bury me in satin._

_Lay me down on a, bed of roses_

_Sink me in the river, at dawn_

_Send me away with the words of a love song…."_

…..

Sirius was sobbing his heart out listening to the music playing, that awful song as he watched his limp brother being dragged from the river. Watching him being pulled through the trees the next morning and laid down amongst a bed of beautiful, colourful roses.

Remus was in tears too, he could hardly look at the screen. They had switched the screen off last night unable to watch, unable to see Regulus appear in the sky having killed himself by accident.

"It's all James' fault!" Sirius sobbed.

Evan was crying so hard he could hardly breathe.

….

Hours passed and the early morning lilac sky slowly diluted to blue again, there was a light, warm breeze in the air and it was somehow beautiful.

The trees waved lightly, the grass blew in the breeze but the forest was still and silent and strangely eerie.

Not was sitting under the trees hidden away, nobody had come through this part so far and he'd mostly been sleeping under the roots or up in the trees wherever he could reach protected with his bow and arrows. He was a pretty good hunter and currently knowing everyone would mostly be sleeping now, he sat cooking a small doe on the fire he'd made. The breeze was blowing west towards the cooler regions of the area therefore blowing the light smoke away with it.

He was beginning to wonder if any of the other tributes were valuing him as a good contender. Besides him there were eleven other tributes in The Games and they were all still going.

Since last night the canon had not fired again meaning everyone was still alive and doing reasonably okay.

He sat humming quietly to himself as he cooked the deer through when a small stirring caught his attention.

Regulus could see nothing but brightness behind his lids. Every inch of his body hurt but he was dead, how could this be?

Very, very slowly sounds began to echo through his ears, the soft chirping of birds, the light breeze and the gradually the scent of cooking filled him up and he inhaled deeply.

His lungs burned in protest but he did not care, he was relaxed and felt safe.

So this was what it was like to die….

What seemed like a lifetime later he finally mustered the strength to open his eyes, at first his vision was blurred them things swam around back into focus. It hurt, everything hurt.

He groaned softly twitching his fingers, something incredibly soft was either side of them and when he twisted a little he frowned confusedly. He was laying in a bed of beautiful, colourful roses.

Every colour of the rainbow in fact.

"I'm in heaven…." He smiled sleepily to himself.

"Oh good you're up" a voice rang through the air, a voice all too familiar and Regulus frowned slightly.

He blinked several times and forced himself up into a sitting position despite the fact his muscles were aching and he stared his mouth parting with surprise.

Nott.

"W-what are you doing here?" he stammered nervously feeling absolutely baffled by the boy.

Apparently Nott was just as confused, he looked down at himself then stared back at Regulus for a few moments before saying. "I'm cooking something to eat"

Regulus stared then his eyes moved to the now cooked food. So that's what the scent was. "Did you die too?" he blinked stupidly.

Did dead people have to eat?

Nott stared at him before he burst into fits of laughter. "You're not dead, Regulus…."

Regulus' face washed with complete and utter confusion. "But-"

Nott shook his head. "You're still alive and still in The Hunger Games" he explained. "I pulled you out of the river last night, couldn't have been all that long after you'd fell in to be honest…." He glanced up at the sky through the breaks in the thick trees.

Regulus stared down at the beautiful flowers around him feeling more surprised and confused than ever.

….

Sirius stared at the screen, his breath had caught so tightly in his throat he was beginning to burn red.

Remus gasped and punched Sirius in the back so the boy automatically took a deep gulp of air and relaxed somewhat.

"He's alive" Sirius choked out hoarsely.

"He's still there" Evan breathed his eyes searching the screen in utter disbelief.

….

"Would you like something to eat?" Nott asked extinguishing the fire and using his clean knife to slice into the thick, delicious meat.

Regulus stared at him in confusion.

Nott beckoned the younger boy over. "Come on, I'm not going to kill you…."

Regulus swallowed and staggered to his feet, his legs were weak and shaking but he managed to make his way over to the boy and slump down under the tree.

"Are you okay?" Nott asked confusedly.

"I-I think so" Regulus breathed rubbing his hands over his torso just to check he really was there. "How did I survive that? I can't swim…." He blinked at the boy.

"I don't know but when I pulled you out I beat a heck of a lot of water out of your chest, tried to dry you off, lay your things out to try and put you to bed for a while hoping you'd come round and you have" the boy explained then passed Regulus a plate covered in thick meat. "Here, you look like you need it, you obviously haven't had much to eat since you've been here" he smiled.

Regulus took the plate. "Thank you" he breathed before he began to wolf the food down. His stomach rumbled and he felt shaky with hunger as he continued to stuff it down himself. The taste was delectable and it was so juicy and nicely cooked, he was incredibly grateful for it.

Nott laughed watching Regulus devour every slice off of the hastily-made plate (which was actually made from a broken up sheet of plastic he'd stolen from the Cornucopia).

"Thank you so much, it was delicious" Regulus smiled sitting back and sniffling.

"Your water bottle is here" Nott said reaching over and picking it up. "I filled it up, you had nothing in there" he smiled handing it to Regulus.

The boy looked at it suspiciously for a moment.

Nott sighed. "If I were going to kill you I would have left you to die or killed you last night rather than poisoning a bottle of water" he quirked an eyebrow. "Come on, Regulus"

Regulus flushed a little and gulped thirstily at the water as Nott rested a second plate of meat in front of him.

"Have as much as you like I've made plenty" Nott smiled gently.

"Thanks, but why are you doing this?" Regulus asked as he chewed through his second plate of meat and Nott handed him a third.

"Because we're friends, right?" Nott spoke casually with a shrug. "We're in this together" he went on. "There's twelve of us still in The Games right now and we're on, what, day five?"

Regulus swallowed and shrugged a little then nodded. "I think so…. Something like that anyway"

Nott nodded slowly with understanding. "Mm"

They carried on eating in silence for a few moments, Regulus gulping down some more water.

"So…. Last night…." Regulus frowned confusedly as Nott went over and gathered up Regulus now dry things and passed them back to the boy dropping back down where he was sitting before with a heavy sigh.

"I'm guessing you're wondering who died?" The boy quirked an eyebrow, a tiny smirk appearing in the corners of his lips.

Regulus nodded curiously as he picked through his things.

"Well that ginger boy, the Weasley one was killed yesterday morning" Nott said counting him off on his fingers. "Taking the count down to thirteen" he went on. "He was killed by Umbridge"

Regulus nodded slowly with understanding. "And the second one? I thought I heard the canon right after I fell in the water…."

"Yeah, that was for Luna" Nott said slowly. "I killed her"

Regulus looked mildly surprised. "You did?"

Nott nodded slowly. "Stealthy, clever girl if you ask me" he swallowed some more food. "She was hanging around near here, I saw her peering through the bushes towards the river trying to figure out who died, didn't seem to have any weapons other than a knife on her and I think she'd only really been using it to cut through plants and vegetation" he explained. "So I killed her, thought I might as well she didn't see me coming and one clear shot through her neck and she was dead instantly" he said calmly.

Regulus swallowed and nodded slowly with understanding.

"The canon went off straight away and I think judging by the state of you, whoever pushed you in obviously at the time thought it might be you" he chuckled softly.

Regulus nodded. "James and Cedric" he explained. "They didn't push me, I fell out of a tree, well, actually the branch broke underneath me and they messed about for ages and I ran for it and I fell through the trees and sort of tried to get away, they nearly had me killed when the ground sort of crumbled beneath my feet and I fell in the water, I was convinced I would die but apparently I'm a little tougher than I look" he flushed and chuckled softly.

Nott smiled to him sweetly. "You are indeed, shocked me a little when your name came up from killing Seamus two days ago…."

Regulus swallowed. "Can we not talk about that, please?"

"Sure" Nott shrugged. "So, what are your plans now?"

"I dunno, perhaps try and go back to where I was hiding before and stay there until The Games end or as long as I can?" Regulus winced slightly. He wasn't going to give the location just in case it did come down to the two of them and Nott could track him and kill him in his sleep.

"Well, I don't think you're in any fit state to go running around on your own…." Nott said slowly. "So how about we ally, just for a little while if you like" he smiled hopefully holding his hand out to Regulus.

Regulus stared at it for a moment before he smiled and shook his friend's hand. "I think I can agree with you there" he added with a small chuckle.

They were interrupted by the sound of the canon booming from somewhere in the distance.

Their eyes roamed the skies for a moment before they turned to stare back at one another.

"Who do you reckon it was?" Nott asked at almost a whisper.

Regulus swallowed and shrugged. "Who's left?"

"Me and you" Nott said counting them off on his hands. "Potter, Diggory, Lockhart, Umbridge, Bellatrix, Tonks, Ginny, Lily and Snape"

Regulus nodded slowly and swallowed. "The closer it gets to the end, the tougher the opponents especially Cedric, James and Bellatrix but Dolores and Gilderoy are pretty tough too"

Nott inhaled slowly and sighed it all back out again closing his eyes in a long, slow blink.

"It's getting too real now" Regulus said quietly. "People are going to get crazy and nasty over this"

"I don't want to die" Nott said quietly.

Regulus sighed softly. "Neither do I but I know I won't win this thing there are been too many close shaves before with the Cornucopia, running into you, then nearly being caught by Cho, James and Cedric under the tree I stayed in on the first night, Ginny nearly killed me on the second day I think it was, then Seamus, James and Cedric again and the river…." Regulus was blushing slightly, he felt like a walking accident.

"A little accident-prone then, aren't you?" Nott chuckled and Regulus nodded shamelessly.

"Pretty much"

"I haven't really seen anyone at all since I've been in here, I've been here for the past four days" Nott said calmly. "Nobody has come by and the first one to get close was the Luna girl"

Regulus frowned slightly. "Where exactly are we?"

"On the outskirts of spring, close not too far from summer we're in a hidden grotto area, very hard to find but it's one of those secret areas like what they had in previous Games" the boy said casually.

"Ohh, I see, is there water near here?" Regulus asked confusedly gazing around the forest. It was pretty well covered.

"Yeah, about five minutes away at best, kinda shallow but it's running and it's clear" he smiled. "I've been drinking it for days now"

Regulus nodded. "We'll probably have to collect some in a bit"

"We will indeed" Nott smiled.

They sat there talking for quite some time, Regulus inspected all of his things. Miraculously the berries had made it and Nott had put them in a little plastic tub he'd gotten from the Cornucopia on one of his trips back there to keep them safe. His knives were there, his arrow, his blanket, everything he'd collected was thankfully still in its place.

"And I think that river blasting might have given you a bit of a bath" Nott chuckled as Regulus checked his now clean jacket.

"Do I smell?"

"A little bit" Nott said casually. "Not bad though"

Regulus reached over and batted his arm in a friendly manner. "Oi"

"Oh come on, you're a teenage boy that's been running about in all the dirt of a forest, sweating and climbing about tress" Nott laughed. "You just smell male"

Regulus shot him a silly glare.

"Fine, you smell just like the roses you've been sleeping in all night" Nott smirked.

"That's…. somewhat better" Regulus laughed.

Nott just simply smiled at him.

"I'm guessing you're surprised I'm still here, right?" Regulus asked slowly, it was one of those daunting questions he had plaguing on his mind whenever he saw or even thought about another person.

Nott just chuckled and shook his head. "To tell you the truth I am mildly surprised that you're still here but I also had a feeling you would be okay" his tone was very amused. "I think you're doing surprisingly well and as you've said you've had close-shaves but I also think you can do really well in this whole thing" he added with a tiny smile. "I believe you're in it to win it"

Regulus stared. "You really think that?"

Nott nodded slowly.

"Then why don't you just kill me now if you think I'm a threat…." Regulus breathed his eyes widening slightly.

"You sound like you actually want to be killed" Nott said casually.

Regulus shook his head vigorously. "No but I'd rather die by the hands of a friend than be killed by Potter or Diggory" he said slowly. "I think anyone in the right frame of mind would"

"That's very true" Nott chuckled. "But I have no intentions to kill you" he added with a warm smile.

….

"Thank Merlin he's alive and okay" Sirius breathed as he slumped forward watching his brother sitting chatting to Nott on the screen before it changed to Lockhart wandering through the trees in the summer zone brushing dirt from his clothes.

"I'm going to sponsor him again tonight" Evan nodded firmly. "He needs it"

"You really seem to care about Regulus, don't you?" Sirius smiled to him.

Evan hesitated nervously for just a moment before he smiled and nodded. "Yes I do and I want to protect him"

"I'm worried for Tonks" Remus said quietly as her image came up on the screen, she was trying her best to climb a tree but it wasn't working.

"I think she'll be alright for now, she's getting through this okay" Sirius said casually. In truth, he actually did not care about her very much at all especially when his little baby brother was being hunted down like this in The Games.

….

After a couple of hours, Regulus withdrew his weapons and followed Nott through their grotto down to where the little stream was. As promised the water was running and as clear as crystal.

Regulus glanced around anxiously as though expecting another tribute to come out and kill them.

"Relax" Nott chuckled. "Nobody is around here"

"How can you be so sure?"

"I've been here for days now, I'd have noticed someone hanging around and the only person that got close, I killed last night" Nott promised with a gentle smile.

"If you're sure…." Regulus said hesitantly as he gulped down some of his water and refilled the canteen.

They headed back to their little area and dropped down, Nott brushed out the debris of the fire and Regulus sat watching and massaging his stomach.

"I'm so full" he breathed.

"It'll do you some good after being half-starved when I found you"

"I wasn't half-starved" Regulus' dark eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"That is actually true but you're skinny as it is and you obviously hadn't had much to eat given how ravenous you were when you ate" Nott chuckled. "So, I'm going to hunt and you're going to stay here and guard, anyone comes by just fucking slaughter them, okay?"

Regulus' eyes widened and his lips parted with shock. Nott had to be joking….

"Okay?" the boy blinked again.

Or not. Regulus swallowed nervously and nodded, he didn't want to have to kill anyone but he would if it saved his life and the life of his friend and new ally.

"Okay, I won't be too long" Nott said quietly before he picked up his weapons and hurried off through the trees and out of their grotto.

Regulus swallowed as Nott's footsteps disappeared off and he could hear nothing but the occasional rustling of the trees. He felt anxious to be alone especially after what happened yesterday and he knew how extremely lucky he was to still be alive.

At least it was warmer here though, at least he was out of that chilly air, the harshness on his throat, having to huddle into himself for warmth because the temperature was pretty mild and decent here. Maybe he should head back to winter soon, he knew he and Nott would not remain together like this forever, they would have to part if not kill one another and he couldn't bear to kill his friend so either Nott would have to kill him or they would separate and let things take their natural course.

Regulus wasn't sitting there for too long when the sound of the canon booming in the distance made him jump so badly a bunch of birds shout of the trees overhead and he hissed angrily.

Shit.

Hopefully if anyone was walking by they would assume the canon had spooked the birds and not an actual person loitering around here.

But who had been killed, that was a more pressing matter. Who had been brutally murdered? A horrible sickly sensation crawled over Regulus' pale skin, what if it was Nott? What if he had been killed? What if they had murdered him as he'd gone out?

Regulus closed his eyes and swallowed the urge to vomit. He was safe here, he had to be safe here.

Opening his eyes he gazed up at the trees, they were pretty heavily sheltered here and reasonably complex to climb for most but he was turning into a decent climber, maybe he should get up there tonight and if Nott was still alive he should get him up into a tree too so they could sleep safely – provided Nott had no plans to kill Regulus in his sleep.

….

Several hours ticked on by, Regulus knew the hours had passed due to the fact the sun had moved a little way across the sky and the late afternoon was drawing in.

He shivered but not because he was cold, because he was frightened that Nott may not be coming back, frightened to see who had appeared in the sky. He'd missed last nights but for exceptional circumstances, it was very nearly his picture shot there.

What would Sirius be thinking now? How badly out of his mind would he be going? Regulus swallowed once again. He hated the thought of his brother being afraid, hated the thought of him stressing and Merlin knows what they'd shown on that screen to him and everyone else in the nation last night, maybe he'd thought Regulus was dead for a little while there but thankfully not.

Maybe they still thought he was dead, maybe the Game Makers were playing it up that way.

What a horrible thought.

Time ticked on past and Regulus was drifting off to sleep (very stupidly) when a rustling caught his attention. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and his silver eyes flew open.

He tensed seizing a hold of his knives gripping the handles so tightly his little knuckles turned white. If someone was there other than Nott, he would have to kill them, that was his duty.

He watched and waited until-

"Hey, it's only me" Nott smiled appearing through the trees.

Regulus relaxed breathing a long, heavy sigh of relief and rolling his eyes. He found a grin appearing on his face.

"Thought I was some random killer tribute, did you?" he chuckled.

"Might have done" Regulus grinned looking to the armfuls of things Nott was carrying. "Wow, I see you've had a pretty good one" he chuckled softly.

"Yeah, found plenty of stuff so let's get some food in our bellies and sort this stuff between us" Nott nodded moving over to sit down.

They sat fiddling and stewing some blackberries using the small packets of sugar Nott had from what he'd picked up in the arena to make a mild jam, it wasn't perfect but it was something different.

"Any idea who got killed?" Regulus asked curiously.

"No clue" said Nott shaking his head. "I haven't seen anyone and I went out a good distance"

"I wonder where they all are" Regulus sighed. "Must be fun for the Game Makers in some ways, they can see who is closest to who and when a fight could potentially break out"

"Yeah" Nott replied. "Twisted fun if you ask me"

Regulus nodded.

"Had any sponsors?" Nott asked curiously.

"Just one" Regulus said quietly. "I got hot chocolate"

Nott's brown eyebrows rose into his hairline. "Must have been fairly expensive, who sent it?"

Regulus hesitated a moment. "Evan Rosier"

"Ahh"

"So how about you, have you had any?" Regulus asked quickly changing the subject, he was genuinely curious to know how other people were doing though.

"One or two" Nott chuckled. "My dad's friend at work sent me a packet of biscuits and Wilkes sent me a tiny handful of tea leaves"

"That's reasonable" Regulus nodded. "Nice of them"

"Was very nice of Evan to send you those things" Nott smiled warmly his eyes twinkling somewhat.

Regulus looked confused. "Yeah, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're so naïve, Regulus" the boy chuckled shaking his head and turning his attention back to their jam.

Regulus blinked. "Seriously, tell me"

"Nothing" Nott grinned.

"I want to know"

Nott sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, but it's so painfully obvious Evan likes you a lot"

"Of course he does, he's my friend" Regulus blinked.

"Aww!" Nott grinned reaching over and ruffling Regulus' hair. "How cute" he teased. "You're so naïve and blind you don't realise how much he likes you"

Regulus' eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"He _likes_ you, Regulus" Nott said simply shooting him a knowing smile.

Regulus stared for a moment before it clicked and he blushed furiously averting his eyes. "Don't be so ridiculous, he doesn't like me in that way…."

Nott rolled his eyes once again. "You're so stupid sometimes"

"Watch what you say or I'll kill you" Regulus muttered and to his surprise, Nott burst out laughing.

"You and I both know you're not a killer, Regulus, you wouldn't kill a slice of bread"

"I killed Seamus" said Regulus.

"But you're not proud of it" Nott pointed out waggling his eyebrows in a teasing manner at him.

Regulus said nothing.

"So come on then, tell me, do you like him back?" Nott asked with a mischievous grin watching Regulus' face ignite into flames once again.

"I don't think that's any of your business…." He breathed.

"So you do then" Nott grinned triumphantly. "Aww, I think it's cute"

"I don't think it's cute at all, I'm going to die in here so there's no point on liking anyone or thinking about anyone from back home because it just makes me sad that I'll never see them again" Regulus' voice cracked as he spoke and he felt fresh, hot tears spring to his eyes.

"Hey, no, come on" Nott said gently putting an arm around his shoulders. "I think you can do this you know"

Regulus sniffed fighting back his sobs. "Why?"

"Because you're much stronger than you realise, you could have died multiple times by now but you haven't, you're small, light, strong and intelligent, those things are good. You can anticipate things and you know how to react, you're not an idiot or blind so you definitely stand a good chance" Nott smiled warmly.

"Not against people like Bella, Umbridge, Lockhart, Potter or Cedric, or even you for example" Regulus swallowed nervously.

"You're forgetting that there are other people in this arena, those people will all come across one another soon and they will all fight" Nott smiled knowingly. "They will have to kill one another soon enough" he chuckled. "And we should stay out of the way until they damage one another, kill one another and when they are wounded, worn and unable to fight much that's when we finish them off or let them die from infection"

Regulus nodded slowly with understanding. What Nott was saying was reasonable. "I guess you're right" he smiled gently. "So let's eat then and talk about something nicer"

Nott laughed. "You're on!"

They sat and ate and ate and ate until they were full, Regulus' tummy was screaming with happiness at actually being full for once as he sat back watching the sun setting. It was growing dark now in the hours that had passed.

"You know something?" he asked quietly.

"What?"

"We should get up into a tree to sleep" Regulus said nodding upwards.

"You can climb?!" Nott asked mildly surprised.

Regulus laughed. "I'm not entirely useless, you know…."

"Never said you were" Nott smiled watching the boy getting to his feet so he jumped up after him.

Regulus gathered the things they needed and began to climb the fattest tree. "Just follow my steps and you'll be fine" he smiled back down to his friend.

Nott hesitated for a moment, he'd hurt himself trying to do this before so what would be any different this time? "Well…." He said slowly. "Alright…."

"Just trust me" Regulus laughed and began climbing the tree.

It took a while but they both managed to get up without too much difficulty.

Regulus had found a fork in the branches and used the ropes to fasted everything together tucking himself down into a groove on the thickest branch that was pretty far off the ground, nobody would see either of them up there.

"You've been doing this every day?!" Nott laughed when he settled down next to Regulus pulling a blanket over them both and snuggling up to him.

"Pretty much" Regulus grinned. "I thought it was my safest option to be honest…."

"It seems you were right" Nott said sounding rather impressed. "So the canon has only fired once today…."

"I believe so" Regulus nodded slowly. "There are eleven tributes left in The Games including us" he breathed slowly.

"I know" Nott swallowed.

They sat in perfect silence together snuggled up for more warmth and Regulus felt more comfortable here than he had ever done anywhere else before so far in The Games.

They waited.

"Good evening to all of you, family, friends, citizens and of course, tributes" Caesar's voice rang out. "Tonight, we have news of two new deaths in The Hunger Games arena…." His voice trailed off and the sky darkened for a few moments.

Regulus held his breath.

The picture of Lily appeared on the screen, she must have been the first one to die today. District 5, killed by – Rita Skeeter.

"I'm not surprised" Nott said quietly. "I wonder how Snape's taking it"

"He might be the other one dead if they've allied" Regulus commented back.

They waited as her picture faded and the second one appeared on the screen.

The second image to appear on the screen was that of Ginny Weasley, the red-headed girl. Killed by – Theodore Nott.

Regulus' eyes went wide and he looked to the boy in shock.

"Call it revenge" he winked as the sky turned black and the feed was cut once again.

Until tomorrow….

….


End file.
